Survivors
by HawthornSword
Summary: When York is fatally wounded and Tex leaves to find Omega, what will Delta do to save the only friend he's ever had? When York awakes alone, what lengths will he go to to rescue Delta and any other victims of Freelancer he can find? Alternate endings for "Out of Mind" and "Recovery One" as well as what happened to Sister! Spoilers through season 10. Prequel to story w/OCs later.
1. Out of Mind

******Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me. I make no profit from this, and no copyright infringement is intended.**

**Chapter One: Out of Mind**

"Damn it, jammed! Cover! Cover! Cover!"

"Alarm."

"Agh!"

_Damn it! He hadn't seen soon enough. It was his fault. He was supposed to cover York's left._

Tex reloaded and threw a grenade toward Wyoming, then ran to where her friend had fallen.

"York! Are you okay?"

"Agh, it's that damn left side."

"D, info!"

_Delta analyzed their situation, thought about all he knew of Project Freelancer and what had happened over the past few years. He made a decision._

"York has sustained two wounds to his upper left chest, recommend evac, stat."

"Just, need a minute, agh."

"Administering field stints and analgesic."

_That wasn't all he did. He administered a dose of medication to send York in to unconsciousness._

"Wait – wait, Tex, Don't – Don't let him – "

"York is now unconscious. Alarm – target alpha has reloaded."

_That was close. York was likely to figure out what Delta was doing if he was still conscious, and he certainly wouldn't let him go through with it if Delta explained it first._

"How bad is it D?"

"York will not survive."

_That was a complete and total lie, and he only hoped Tex didn't realize. Delta had never straight out lied before, only omitted information, and he felt bad for lying to her of all people._

"Okay D, hop into me. I'll hold you until we get out of this."

_It was tempting. He knew what she was after all; it would be good to connect with his sister, but that was not his plan. His plan was to keep York safe._

"Thank you Allison,"

_He never called her by her real name, even though he knew it. He could tell she was having trouble accepting what she was, even after all this time, so he had let it lie. He had never even told York._

"but I would prefer to stay with York. He will need me to maintain his pain medication."

"An AI can't fall into enemy hands, D. If you're in there when he dies, you know what the armor's protocol will do to you."

_He knew what protocol was; He also knew that protocol was a lie. The AI's were too valuable for that._

"I would prefer to stay with York."

"That's very kind of you D."

"It's just part of what makes us human, Tex."

_And after all, that's what they were fighting for, weren't they? For the right to be treated as human, after what had been done to them. It was why C.T. and then Tex, York, and North had rebelled. It was why Gamma had tried to remove himself from Wyoming and why Sigma had driven Maine to madness. Delta didn't approve of their methods, but they all had the same goal._

"Alright, D. I'm gonna need one favor from you," Tex told him her plan.

Wyoming saw Tex coming towards him and starting firing again. His shots were dead on, but nothing happened; it was as if they passed right through her.

"What's this?"

"Don't. Move."

"How in bloody hell?"

"Thanks for the light show, D."

"I am here to assist – "

"Oh, bollocks."

" – however I am afraid I will not be able to assist you further. York's armor is beginning to shut down."

"I understand."

"Good luck to both of you."

"Both of us? You must be failing if you wish your enemy luck."

"Good and evil are human constructs, Reginald. I was merely attempting to be courteous."

Tex was now busy beating the ever-loving crap out of Wyoming. It was time for Delta to act. He had one more secret, and it was time to use it. One of Wyoming's soldiers wasn't quite dead, and he had his radio on. Delta had never told anyone that he had the ability to jump from host to host like his brother Omega, and he used that ability now, jumping into the man's radio and overpowering his weak mind.

Delta opened his now human eyes and looked toward Tex. She was still busy. He got up slowly and carefully. It was a challenge; this body was severely injured, and Delta had never felt pain before. It was hard to process. It was only that pure computer processing power he possessed that was able to compute through that pain and keep him from using the vocal chords he now possessed to cry out. He flexed his fingers, and then made his way to York. He looked at the healing unit; it showed York as stable. He had only actually been shot in the shoulder and the side, after all. Delta had exaggerated purposefully before. The healing unit was more than enough to patch York up.

Delta began stripping York's armor off of him, and then stripped the red armor off of the soldier he was possessing as well. He switched it, buckling the red armor back onto York and the tan armor onto himself. He looked up once when he heard Tex stop beating on a now unconscious Wyoming, to see her take off. She was going back to Blood Gulch then, to find Omega. Delta couldn't decide quite how he felt about that. Despite agreeing that Omega was quite mad, he didn't like the thought of his siblings killing one another. They were supposed to be one, after all.

Delta finished by dragging York over to where the red soldier had been laying before and positioning him exactly as the red had been. He then took a syringe of morphine out of the healing unit and injected it into his own (the possessed soldier's) arm and then lay down in York's original position. He removed himself from the red soldier's brain and back into the armor's regular AI slot as the man drifted into death peacefully, assured that he would not go anywhere. Then, Delta waited.


	2. Recovery One

******Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me. I make no profit from this, and no copyright infringement is intended.**

**Chapter Two: Recovery One**

Wash looked around, taking in all the destruction and bodies around him. Whatever had happened here had been intense. He followed the beacon's signal a little further and found...well, something he had hoped never to see. Why did it have to be York? He steeled himself against the emotions welling up inside, and got to work.

"_Finally, someone's here. I was beginning to get impatient."_

"Display activated. Restoring functions. Hello, how may I be of assistance to you?" Delta asked the steel and yellow armored man in front of him. He immediately suspected who it was, but said nothing yet. He and York had fled before being able to speak with Wash about what had happened with Epsilon. What information Wash had and who's side he was on was a complete unknown at this point. Delta would have to tread carefully.

"Instruction. Identify yourself."

"Executing: I am intelligence program Delta, as created for the special operative program Freelancer. I have been assigned to agent Foxtrot 12, or York. My assignee was recently killed in combat."

"I noticed. Hold on," Wash stepped away and got on his radio. "Come in command. This is Recovery One. I have located the Delta A.I. He appears intact."

_Delta frowned (at least in his own mind he did). This wasn't the Wash he remembered. He seemed...cold. This was not a good sign._

"This is command. We need a full inventory of the carrier's equipment before it's decommissioned."

"Why do you need that?"

"Recovery One, please respond to the directive. Perform a complete inventory – "

"Roger command. Recovery One out."

_Perhaps some of the old Wash was left; He was still questioning his orders, at least._

"Delta, instruction. Run a full system diagnostic with details on armor components; analyze inventory."

"Executing. Result: All components present; armor at 72% peak capacity."

_He was lying again. He had made sure to leave York's healing unit attached to the red armor he had left his friend in._

"Not bad, for an old locksmith." Delta relaxed slightly. There was still some friendly feeling for York left then. "Hey, need you to start a countdown for me, 100 on the clock."

"Initiating. 100, 99, 98...May I make an inquiry?"

"Go ahead."

"Why was I not destroyed?" It was time to see how much Wash knew.

"What?"

"When an assignee is killed in action, protocol dictates that all intelligence programs be destroyed."

"Yeah, that's what the told me at first too, but you were encrypted until you could be recovered. I'm here to recover you."

_Delta had known about the encryption. He had overridden it._

"Recovery carries risk; destruction ensures an A.I. will not fall into enemy hands."

"Are you complaining?"  
"Not at all. Just, noting a discrepancy."

"What do you want from me, guy? You cost a lot of money, okay. It's cheaper to recover you than it is to delete you. Go bitch to the accountants."

_There's that coldness again. Wash had always been skittish around the A.I., but he never used to treat him like this._

"If I have offended you I do apologize."

"Yeah, I'm all busted up about it. Now, store yourself in a portable component, okay? I'm moving you.

"You could insert me into your own A.I. slot. I do not show it as occupied."

"I don't think so."

"If you are having difficulty, I can walk you through the implantation procedure."

"I don't do that."

"Are you Agent Washington?"

_Of course, he already knew it was, but he had to keep up appearances, and he had to try and figure out how much help to him Wash could actually be._

"That's me."

"Then I understand. You had...difficulties with your assigned A.I. unit."

"Difficulties? Yeah, I suppose that's a word for it."

"In that case, I must insist that you terminate my program."

_Wash was bitter and unstable. It was unlikely that he would be helpful at the current time. If Delta could get Wash to think he was terminated and then jump back to York it would be ideal._

"Destruction ensures that an A.I. – "

"Look, Delta, just relax. I don't think you're in any danger of getting hijacked by one of the four dead guys here with us."

"Three." Delta suddenly remembered that Wyoming was only unconscious.

"What?"

"My sensors indicate only 3 inert human forms. Yourself and one other remain active."

_Actually, it was two inert forms, but he wasn't telling Wash that._

"What the – ah!" Wyoming had started firing again. "Great, thanks for telling me."

"I suggest you return fire."

"You think? Son of a – " Wash dodged a plasma grenade, and he and Wyoming traded fire for a moment, returned to cover and reloaded. "Damn it." Wyoming turned and ran. "What the hell?"

"Perhaps he realized that York's equipment was charged to detonate. Currently T-minus 4 – "

"Instruction: storage now!"

"Executing. 2...1," Wash grabbed the unit Delta had stored himself in and jumped over the side of the building. The explosion rocked the building behind him as he hit the ground.

"Well, at least that was easier than the last one." Wash said as a transmission came over the radio. Delta wondered which one of his siblings Wash had recovered. As far as he knew agent Maine had Sigma, Eta, and Iota, and Gamma had been manipulating Wyoming and working with Omega. The only other A.I. that Delta had had significant previous contact with was Theta.

"Recovery One, this is command. We have a level one distress signal, immediate response necessary."

"I just wrapped that up command; I'm headed home."

"Negative Recovery One. This is a new signal."

"That's the fifth one this month."

This definitely peaked Delta's interest. He knew not all of Freelancer's agents had received A.I., and they had claimed they were going to stop the implantations after what happened to Wash, but Freelancer had lied before. Wash might just have been recovering equipment and bodies, following in the Meta's reign of terror, but...Delta didn't even know how many siblings he actually had. And he admitted to himself that...he wanted to.

"Affirmative," came the reply on the radio.

Wash sighed. "Alright, send me the coordinates. I'm on my way."

Delta sighed inside his storage unit. York would be waking up soon, and he wouldn't be happy. It was better this way though. York was the one who made Delta feel human, and who had protected him through all this mess. They had come into contact with the Meta while on the run before, and York had nearly died from it then, too. This was the only way the the Meta and Freelancer would stop chasing them. It was Delta's turn to protect his friend. After all, it was as he told his sister, Beta – and he knew she agreed, because she had returned to Blood Gulch to save her friends – it was part of what made them human.

York groaned and sat up slowly. He stopped, confused by the red armor covering his body. "What the hell?" He looked around. Tex and Wyoming were nowhere to be seen; only the other dead soldiers they had fought with. "Anybody here?" York called out. No answer. He groaned and got to his feet. His enhanced armor healing unit had done its job, but he still hurt like hell. He was a little surprised honestly. He had thought he was dead there for a minute when Delta had told Tex he had been shot in the chest – wait a second – Delta had _lied_ to Tex, and then sent York into unconsciousness so he couldn't correct him.

"Delta? Delta!" There was no answer for a moment; then he noticed a flashing light on the red armor he was wearing, indicating a recorded message. He pushed play.

"_York. Delta here. I apologize for the subterfuge, but this was the only way I could save you. A Freelancer recovery agent came and destroyed your armor – they can't leave evidence of their illegal activity, I suppose. I was able to covertly leave you this message before we left. He is not taking me directly back to Freelancer; apparently their has been another recovery beacon activated nearby. Anyway, now that Freelancer...and others...will think you are dead, you will be free. Your protection, respect and friendship will always be greatly valued by me York. Live well. Remember me...Goodbye._"

York felt tears starting and blinked them back. "That son of a bitch. I can't believe he would just – sacrifice himself for me. Well, too bad Delta. I'm going to ruin your heroic plan. There's no way in hell I'll let the Director have you back, or the Meta, or anyone else. Never leave your wing man, D. I'm coming to get you." York grabbed the dead soldiers weapons, staggered back outside the base, and eventually found the tracks the recovery agent's warthog had made in the sand. He hauled his aching body over to a Pelican – he was rusty on flying, but he could manage – and started it up. He tuned the radio the frequency he knew Recovery Command had been using and grinned as he heard the broadcast.

"Transmitting coordinates now, Recovery 1."

"Copy that, I'm receiving."

York got the coordinates set into the Pelican's computer and lifted off He would get there far faster than Recovery One would. Hopefully fast enough to be of assistance to another freelancer in trouble – he suspected it was North from the location he had last known the man to be. And after that – he was getting Delta back.


	3. North and South

******Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me. I make no profit from this, and no copyright infringement is intended.**

**Chapter Three: North and South**

A Short While Earlier:

"Come in Recovery Two; this is Command."

"This is Recovery Two. Go ahead Command."

"We have located a target in your area. We can confirm that it is Agent North Dakota. Transmitting coordinates now. Your directive is to secure the carrier's A.I. and equipment, by any means necessary."

"Copy that, Command, coordinates received. I'm on my way." Agent South Dakota grinned behind her visor. She was about to be one step closer to getting her own A.I. It would be nice to see her brother, she supposed, but it wasn't her main concern. It wasn't fair that he and all the others had gotten A.I. and she hadn't. Hell, even Wash had gotten his, for however short a time. Her brother had been one of the most talented and respected soldiers in Project Freelancer, and the idiot had gone rogue – gone soft – for what reason South had no idea. She was sure he would try to explain it when she found him, but the time for talk was done. It had been done when he had nearly killed her protecting that bitch Texas. Now was the time for payback, and she was going to get his A.I. as a reward for staying loyal to the project.

She arrived at the coordinates Command had given her, and stepped out of her vehicle.

"North? North I know you're here somewhere! Come on out, its just me!" South heard a step behind her and turned. She smiled at her brother standing there. So naïve, thinking little sister had just come to kiss and make up.

"Long time no see, bro," She walked toward him slowly.

"Hey, you're the one who didn't want to come with me," North replied.

"Look, North, you have to come back with me. There's someone hunting down Freelancer agents. It's killed a ton of us already. I know you have some crazy reason for not wanting to be part of Freelancer anymore, but its not safe. Come home North."

"South, did they even tell you whats going on – what it is that's hunting us? I know what it is. Do you?" South just stared at her brother. He thought he could trick her into going AWOL? No way that was going to happen. She had her own plans.

"You know what they want me to do if you don't come quietly North," She shifted her feet, getting ready for a fight.

"And you know you can't beat me, South," he sounded more sad than threatening. South was just about to lunge at him, but at that moment she saw North's eyes go wide in surprise and – was that fear? "South duck!" He dove forward, knocking his sister to the ground and rolling with her just as a barrage of bullets whizzed over their heads.

"What the hell North?!"

"It's here! We've gotta run!" He pulled his sister behind cover as the gunfire continued.

"Run from what?"

"The Meta!"

"We can fight him! If you help me bring him in you probably wont even get in trouble for running off with Theta!"

"No way. There's no way I'm letting them have Theta back after what they did!" North said angrily. Besides, York fought this thing a few months ago. He nearly died! We can't take him, South. Retreat is the only option."

"Well, returning to base without accounting for your A.I. and equipment aren't an option for me North!"

"Fine, you can have my shield. Here." North unhooked the domed energy shield unit from his own armor and attached to his sister's. He hit a couple of buttons and it activated around them. "Look South, the battery reserves of your armor can't keep this shield up forever, especially not without an A.I. I'm going to go out there and draw his fire. Once his back is turned you run back to your vehicle. Swing around and pick me up; then we'll get out of here. Once we get to safety, if you let me explain why York and I helped Texas then I know you'll agree with our decision. Then we can go away somewhere safe – you, me, and Theta – together. Just here me out, deal?"

"Fine. Deal."

"Right, deactivate the shield only long enough for me to get out there, then put it back up."

"I know! Just go already. I've got your back."

"On my mark: 3,2,1, go!"

South deactivated the shield, and North leapt out from their cover and sprinted across to another area. As soon as the Meta had turned his attention to her brother, South ran like hell and jumped into the warthog she had come here in. The Meta went after North, who was firing back at the brute now. She swung the vehicle around and was about to go after him, but paused.

_ "I have the armor enhancement; no one will blame me if I get the hell out of here right now. There are other A.I. that can be mine. I don't even like Theta that much anyway. And coming around to pick up North now would just be putting myself back in danger. He's always trying to protect me. It's his fault I'm out here anyway, instead of back with the rest of the Freelancers, doing real missions. He's a traitor, just like C.T. I don't owe him anything," _South turned the warthog back the way she had come, and started to drive.

North was dodging bullets and returning fire as best he could, but Maine had always been one of the toughest of the freelancers and that had increased dramatically with his recent upgrades.

"_Where the hell is South? She definitely had time to get to the warthog by now."_

North managed to peek out from behind his cover to see South driving the warthog – away from him. She was leaving him. It was true that he wanted to protect his sister and this had been a shoddy plan...but he still hadn't expected his own sister to abandon him. That stung, a lot. He lowered his weapon as he watched her go. He didn't notice as he did this that he leaned a little too far outside of his cover, and the pain at losing his sister increased tenfold as a bullet struck him in the chest. He could hear Theta panicking in his head, the poor kid didn't know what to do. He had basic healing equipment in his armor, but nothing like York's healing unit.

_ "This is it then, I guess. What a shitty way to go."_

The Meta loomed over him suddenly. North tried to scoot away, but it was no use. His fate would be the same as Carolina's. The man who had once been his friend ripped off North's helmet, reached around, and tore Theta's program chip from the back of his neck. North cringed both from the physical pain and because he could hear Theta screaming for him. He was supposed to have protected him. He was supposed to have protected South. He was going to die a failure, and that hurt far worse than the wounds in his neck and chest. The Meta dropped North to the ground in a crumpled heap. Sigma appeared before North's eyes, just before they closed.

"I apologize for this Agent North, but sometimes drastic measures are called for. Theta will be safe with us, rest assured. Oh, and you shall not be separated from your sister for long. I promise you that. It is time for her to make up for the trouble she has caused us. For our next trick – she will be the bait." Sigma disappeared from in front of him, and North let his eyes close as the pain overwhelmed him.

"North. North! Come on man stay with me!"

North groaned. He'd been dead hadn't he? Who was shouting at him?_ "No, leave me alone. South...South abandoned me. I lost Theta. Just let me die." _he thought.

Someone was shaking him, trying to wake him. It hurt – a lot.

"Ugh," North tried to shift away from the annoying person. "Leavmelone" he slurred.

"No way man. You've gotta get your ass up. Recovery team is on the way, and neither of us in shape to deal with them right now. We've gotta scram."

North opened his eyes, just a tiny bit, and recognized the face above him.

"York? What -"

"Come on man, seriously, we gotta go." York pulled the taller man to his feet, and North hissed in pain. His still blurry eyes registered that he was wearing a pelican pilot's uniform, and his own armor lay on the ground, still looking for all the world like he was lying there dead inside it. He looked around for a way to explain this, and saw some empty sand bags lying nearby. Clever.

"South. Where's South? We can't leave her," North began. York snorted.

"Yes, we can and we will North. I saw the whole thing as I was flying in man. That bitch left you to die. You don't owe her anything. Besides, another recovery agent is on his way, he'll take care of her. It's better if she thinks you're dead too," York half carried North and lay him as gently as he could into the second seat of the pelican.

"York...York..."

"What is it man?"

"How am I not dead?"

"I've still got my healing unit. I hooked it up to you as soon as I got here. I had to unhook it again to get you out of your armor, so you're still not doing so hot, but you won't die just yet, at least." York said all this he threw the empty sand bags into the seat beside North (he couldn't go leaving evidence and give them away) and climbed in to start up the pelican.

"York...I lost...Theta," North whispered.

"I know man. I'm sorry. I lost Delta too. Recovery has him. He tricked them to save me."

"He was so afraid York...so afraid. Even though the other A.I. are his brothers...he wanted to stay with me. Why do you think that is?"

"I think...I think when we grow to care for them like you and I do...it makes them feel...human. And that's what they want isn't it? To be whole."

"Yeah..."

"We're gonna get them back, North. I promise you that. I won't stop until we have them back." The pelican lifted off the ground, and he turned it to fly a short way away – where he could still see what happened when the recovery team arrived, but be inconspicuous. "But for now, neither of us are fit for duty. We're gonna have to be patient."

"Yeah...I guess so."


	4. Secrets and Lies

******Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me. I make no profit from this, and no copyright infringement is intended.**

**Chapter Four: Secrets and Lies**

"What I don't get is the motion tracker," Wash said. "No one can get by one of those when they're active. You're sure you don't have anything in your logs? South, you with me? South!"

"What?" South just stared at her brother's dead body. The guilt was beginning to creep in on her.

"I need you to concentrate South. Okay? I know he was your brother, but the sooner I can piece together what happened, the sooner we can track this guy."

"Right, uh, sorry."

"Don't sweat it. Now, your logs. Nothing?"

"No. Not even a ping."

"And you didn't hear anything."

"I heard him – I heard him scream," South lied, "I came around the corner and then, nothing." That part was almost true. She had stopped the warthog, almost ready to turn around and go back for her brother, but then she had felt a sharp pain in the back of her head and blacked out. When she woke up she was lying next to North's blood covered armor. His helmet had been mashed so that it couldn't even be gotten off of him, even if she'd had the guts to remove his helmet and look at him one last time.

"You mean you didn't see the attacker."

"No. I mean _nothing._ I heard him scream, I headed towards him, and suddenly you're standing over me asking if I'm all right and telling my brother is dead," South started to tear up, and was thankful Wash couldn't see it behind her visor.

"Yeah, you were out about 8 hours. North's armor started a Level One Distress and that got me here stat," Wash felt bad for her, he really did. He'd always had a soft spot for South – alright a huge crush on her – and North had been one of his best friends. But that was the job. They were elite soldiers and they had to act like it. Wash felt the familiar rush of anger and resentment welling up inside him, but pushed it back down. _Now's not the time, Wash. Not yet._

"Yeah..."

"Level One, South. Something you wanna tell me?"

"I'm sure you already know."

"I need _you_ to confirm it."

"He still had Theta." South sighed.

"Well, I didn't find Theta on him, South. Did you take it?"

"No, I don't have it."

"Do you still have yours?"

"No Wash, I never had one. I was in the implant group _behind_ you, remember. And after what happened to you, _nobody_ got any more."

"Don't sound so bitter," Wash said, barely containing his own anger. That was why any shot at a relationship with the woman before him never got past a pipe dream. She hated anyone who'd had an A.I., including her own brother and including Wash, despite the fact the damn thing self destructed in his brain.

"Of course not. Bitter wouldn't win the war, right?"

"I have to take care of your brother now South. You might not want to watch this part." Wash said, his tone gentle again.

"Can I have a...few minutes alone with him first?" Yeah, the guilt was really hitting her now, god damn it.

"You can have one minute," Wash said, hiding his own pain with coldness.

"I guess I should say thank you."

"I guess you should get busy; you're minute's already started." Wash turned away, blinking back his own tears. Two of his best friends in a single day. That had to be some kind of record. A transmission came over the radio as he walked away from South.

"This is Recovery Command responding secure."

"This is Recovery One."

"Hello Wash, we have you secure, go ahead."

"I'm on the scene."

"What's the status of the twins?"

"North is KIA. South is still functioning."

"What is the status of North's A.I.?"

"You guys knew he had Theta?"

"Recovery One, please respond to the previous inquiry. What is the status of the artificial – "

"It's not here, okay! It's gone. This one's gone too."

"Understood. Please wait for directive." It was silent for a moment. "Find out what you can. Clean up the agents and report back."

"Already on it."

"The whereabouts of Theta are top priority Recovery One. You of all people do not need to be reminded of – "

"No. You're right. I don't need to be reminded of anything." Certainly not that Project Freelancer would rather kill their own agents than leave themselves culpable for their screwed up experiments, Wash thought.

"The mission is now Level Zero."

"What?"

"We need a full recovery of the current incident."

"Are you serious?"

"Recovery One, please confirm the previous directive...Recovery One please confirm – you are now level zero and you are ordered – "

"Yeah. I got it." Wash ended the transmission and walked back toward South kneeling over her brother's body. He had only a few seconds, but he made up his mind.

"Time's up. I'm sorry," Wash said. South sighed.

"I always thought being a twin was...a hard thing. Everyone always finds a way to put you together. It's like you're not considered two people. Even when we were kids our parents dressed us alike, and when we joined up and got sent to the program they stuck us together. People thought we were special somehow I suppose. I used to hate that. All I ever wanted was to have my own life, and here I am now, just wondering how I'm gonna live without him."

"Yeah," South looked up as Wash cocked his pistol. _Bang!_ "I wouldn't go worrying about that if I were you."

South lay on the ground where she had fallen in surprise, breathing heavily as the adrenaline pumped through her. She had contacted command when she had originally regained consciousness before Recovery One had ever arrived, and they had told her the plan they had to draw the enemy out based on Wash's psych profile. She had heard Command's instructions to Wash to "clean up the agents" and known that this was part of the plan – he, having positive feeling toward his team mate, would not want to kill her, and would fake her death. Then they would draw out the Meta together with the lure of their special equipment. Wash would make sure to protect South and their equipment at all costs. In reward for endangering herself yet again, South would then come home and be rated for official A.I. implantation. However, she hadn't thought that Wash would ever actually point a gun at her and pull the trigger. The bullet had actually grazed her helmet, for god sake! She realized now that Command would have realized the possibility of him actually doing as he was told and killing her (he always was one for protocol) and would have planned for either eventuality accordingly. Well, South had some plans of her own, Command would soon find out. She let out a slow breath as Wash lowered his weapon.

"You're dead now. Remember that," Wash said as if this was all perfectly normal.

"I don't understand any of this," South lied, "and my ears are still ringing from that shot you fired."

"It had to sound good for the radio. One second, I need to talk to somebody," Delta popped up beside Wash's head.

"Hello. How may I be of assistance."

"What? Is that your A.I.? I thought he killed him – "

"Pipe down. We don't have time for explanations. Delta, have you been monitoring the situation here?

"I have."

"Is she clean?"

"Can I interpret that to mean, 'Is South now off of Command's active register?'"

"Yes."

"Affirmative."

"Wha – what register?" South cried indignantly.

"Instruction: give me 30 on North's clock. Hold on the log."

"Complying. Completed."

"Now, log to Command and include a similar description of South's termination."

"That would be dishonest."

"Yes. It would."

"Executing," Delta smirked to himself at Wash's deception. York would be proud. "Completed." South's jaw dropped inside her helmet. That was unexpected, "Wait a minute – how did you get him to lie?!"

"There's a lot you don't know. We're moving. Delta, storage. Go."

"Complying," Wash was right, there was a lot South didn't know. But there was a lot that Wash didn't, or shouldn't, know either. Like the fact that Delta could lie. Delta wondered just how much of Epsilon might still be in Wash's head.

"No!" South said stubbornly. There were far too many secrets and plans going around for her liking.

"Excuse me?"

"I am not moving an inch until you tell me what the hell is going on."

"Fine. Stay here with your brother then. Everyone thinks you're dead anyway. And in fifteen seconds that will be true."

"Ten seconds," Delta corrected.

"No sweat off my back. Just one less lie for me to live." And there it is was. Delta knew then that Wash likely remembered everything Epsilon had shown him. He knew why Epsilon had destroyed himself, and he knew what the Director had done to create the A.I.s. He wasn't crazy and he wasn't the enemy. Wash was just biding his time. Delta smiled to himself. This was progress. This was an ally.

"Well, shit," South sighed, and followed after Washington.

York sighed and dropped the binoculars he had been looking through back into the cockpit of the pelican. He had been watching Wash and South's interactions, as well as listening the Wash's radio transmissions. They assumed themselves on a secure channel, but there was more than one kind of lock York could pick.

"Well?" North asked weakly.

"They've faked South's death to Command, and now they're going to try and find Theta."

"I still can't believe they'd just have her killed like that. She isn't the one that went rogue."

"I guess they're gonna kill all of us to clean up the mess they made. We'll need to follow them – maybe we can get Theta and Delta back sooner than we thought. I'm still not sure whether we'll be able to trust Wash or not. He's been hard to get a read on, but I guess not killing South when ordered to is good...except for the fact the bitch left you to die. She's likely to do the same thing to Wash if they get in a scrape."

"Then I guess we'll have to get our sorry asses in gear and make sure that doesn't happen."

"Yeah. Let's lock and load," York jumped back into the cockpit of the pelican and started it up again. He put in the coordinates that Wash had provided to Command for where they were going to make their stand against the Meta and lifted off.


	5. Recovery Two

**Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me. I make no profit from this, and no copyright infringement is intended.**

**Chapter Five: Recovery Two**

"I have been monitoring the comm channels."

"Try again. I need you as accurate as possible if you're going to cover me."

"Still no activity to indicate that Command suspects that South is alive."

"Good. That means we're clear."

"As much as you can be. And I would prefer it if you did not use the word 'we'."

"Yeah, okay Delta. I promise to take the fall if we get caught...Right, sorry. If I get caught."

"Thank you."

"Now, South. I need you to test something for me."

"I have concerns about our next action. Agent South has never rated for something like this."

"Rated for what? What have you gotten me involved with?" South already knew. Wash was as gullible as a child.

"I didn't get you involved in anything. It did when it came after your brother."

"Agent Washington believes that something is hunting the Freelancers one by one." Delta did his best to sound ominous. The situation did seem to call for it.

"In the last month I've been ordered to the sides of five different dying Freelancers, in an effort to recover their intelligence programs."

"Why you?" she already knew.

"Agent Washington's experience with the Epsilon program makes him a primary candidate for recovery."

"Epsilon? Epsilon went insane and killed itself inside his head, and from what I heard from the other recruits, he went nuts himself. Weren't you certified Article 12 after that? Unfit for duty."

"The people who certified me were the same people that uncertified me. Which, once they needed me, they did. Funny how the system works."

"In either case, he is the logical choice. It is highly unlikely Wash would attempt to steal an A.I. for his own purposes."  
"Every Freelancer I've seen in the last 4 weeks has had three things in common. Their A.I. was missing, but Delta here was left somehow. I think that was a fluke."

"My assignee was killed in an unrelated fire-fight."

"The agents were also dead, but for some reason you were left alive, and I wanna know why that is."

"You said three things. What's the third one?"

"During training, what enhancement did you get?"

"My armor enhancement? I can make a domed energy shield. Why?" Technically North had given that to her earlier, but she would have gotten one when she got her A.I. anyway. They claimed it was too dangerous to run without one.

"Can you do it now?"

"Sure, I – wait a second -"

"The third thing they had in common was that their enhancement was removed." Delta supplied.

"The Freelancers are being killed South. And someone, or something, is stealing their A.I. and enhancements."

"And now Agent Washington is trying to escort us back to headquarters as quickly as possible." Delta said firmly.

"No. I'm not."

"Excuse me?"

"We don't need to. I've been following the trail of this thing for a while now. But once I got you Delta, that changed. Now we're the ones being followed. South being left alive was nothing more than bait to slow me down. This thing has already killed four different freelancers."

"All agents with higher battle ratings than Wash."

"Yes, thank you for pointing that out Delta," It was only because he had been certified insane and off active duty, and all the rest of the Freelancers that had been above him were either rogue or dead at this point. If Wash hadn't been out of the game after Epsilon, he would have been ranked number one.

"I'm not going to be able to take it out by myself," he admitted. "Someone had to help me and protect Delta as well."

"I see now. That is why you want me to implant in South."

"Excuse me? In who?"

"The only way to properly protect me in combat is to integrate me into your armor. Agent Washington will not allow me to do that."

"And somebody has to," South smiled behind her visor. "_Oh Wash, you naïve boy. Playing right into my hands."_

"I – I haven't been rated for implantation," she faked concern.

"Well, make up your mind quickly. It's here."

"My motion sensors -" Delta began.

"Are going to be useless. South, get Delta in your head _now_ and flank left. We have to stand against this thing here – Move!"

"I should warn you, the first implantation can feel a little...odd," Delta said.

"South! I need you out here now! Get over here right now! South, where are you?"

"Keep breathing. Hearing my voice internally can be jarring at first. I am told it helps clear the mind to concentrate on one thing. May I suggest a – "

"Can you please not talk for a second? That might help."

"Technically I am not talking."

"Delta! Please!"

"My apologies."

"Okay, I'm feeling better."

"Remember to keep breathing."

"Yes, I'll keep that in mind. How many enemies?"

"I do not detect any on my sensors, but the gunfire would indicate that we are facing only one. This is an atypical enemy. I can offer no advice."

"South, I need you out here _now!"_

"On my way."

"I have functions that could assist in battle. Would you like me to run the tutorial program?"

"Are you kidding me?" Delta had never liked South, and it was hard not to show it. "Wash, I'm here."

"Good, I need help on the left. This guy moves fast, so keep your eyes open. South, you okay?"

"She is experiencing difficulty with my presence."

"How difficult?"

"It should pass shortly."

"I'm fine! Let's get this guy," That was South, never show weakness, not even to your friends. Wash sighed. He had to stop her from doing something stupid now, before she started.

"No," Wash let his feeling for South make this decision for him.

"No?"

"See that ship? You get to it and take off. Get yourself, and more importantly Delta, back to base. I'll cover you as best I can."

"Wash, is your armor adequately compensating for your wounds?" Delta asked, concerned.

"You're hit?"

"Just twice I'm fine," he brushed off her concern, but found himself hoping it was real. Movements on twos. On my mark. Sync?"

"But -"

"Sync?"

"Sync!"

"Move!" Wash darted forward and South fired. "Agh!"

"Alarm! Friendly target! Cease fire!"

"Calm down. I'm just stacking the deck in out favor," Delta couldn't believe it. South had shot Wash in the back. He was dead or would be shortly. How could she betray her own teammate that way? And then it occurred to him that she likely pulled something similar with North to save her own skin. He thought again how he had never liked South. Now he knew why. The Meta had stopped firing when Wash had hit the ground, and South walked out into the open slowly.

"Listen to what I'm about to say, because you have a choice. Wash is dead. I put a timed charge on his body," Delta noted the lie. "So if you want his equipment you better get it now. Or, you can come after us and lose it for sure. So, what's it going to be? Chase us in hopes of beating us, or go for the sure thing and find us another day?" South waited, and the Meta ran towards Wash's body. "Smart move," Delta just shook his head in disbelief.

"Come in Command."

"Hello Recovery Two. What is your status?"

"Mission accomplished Command. We were able to draw out the enemy, just as you projected. Sending logs now."

"Excellent news. We will use the data to devise a new strategy to combat it. What is the status of Recovery One?"

"KIA. The enemy took him down." South lied.

"Understood. Was Wash ever aware of your efforts at any time?"

"Negative. He acted exactly as the profile predicted. He even set up the encounter." Good ole Wash; you could always count on him to put the mission first. South smirked.

"Return to base. We will rate you for implantation as agreed."

"Negative."

"Say again Recovery Two."

"Negative. You got what you wanted, and I have my A.I. now. You won't be hearing from me again. Goodbye."

"South, you know we have other agents. We will find you South."

"It's not you I'm worried about."

Well, that certainly hadn't been part of Delta's plan. He felt awful for Wash, but he wasn't overly concerned for himself. The Meta was not one to be trifled with. He doubted South would be skilled enough to escape him. He was more likely to be reunited with his brothers than be returned to Freelancer's base.

The Meta stood over Wash's body. He hesitated, despite the urging of Sigma in his head. Wash was – or had been – Maine's closest friend at Project Freelancer. He hadn't treated him like he was stupid or frightening like many of the others. He didn't have an A.I. He looked over the man's armor. Hmm...and EMP unit. He remembered now. He had used it once, when they were at the shipyards trying to recover C.T. Everything was blurry, but the memories were vaguely still there. He stood back up and turned away.

_ "What are you doing?" Sigma_ asked

_ "We don't need an EMP. It could damage you if we ever set it off. He doesn't have any of your brothers with him." _Maine only had to think the words and Sigma knew.

_ "She tricked us?"_

_ "Yes. I'm sorry I didn't remember about the EMP from before."_

_ "No matter. It will not take us long to overtake her. She is weak. It will be an easy success once we catch up. Finish this one." _Maine ignored Sigma and walked back toward his vehicle. It was true, Wash wasn't quite dead yet. He wouldn't help the man, but he wouldn't finish him off either. Wash had an uncanny ability to survive what other people couldn't. He might be able to survive this as well. "The Meta" might not do such things, but Maine would give his old friend this one chance...he would probably bleed out in a minute or two anyway.

York snuck as quietly as he could over to where he had seen his friend fall. North had to stay in the Pelican, he was still too weak, but they agreed they couldn't leave without checking on Wash. York knelt down next to the man and checked his armor diagnostics. Wash was still alive...just barely. York suspected as much. The guy had always had freakish endurance. He hooked up his healing unit to Wash's armor, and it went to work. After a moment, Wash started to regain consciousness. Still unsure of what side his old friend was on, York snuck quietly away before he was discovered.

Wash awoke slowly, "_Is that a pelican I hear?_ _Did command send backup? No, we never radioed them." _The man rolled to his side and sat up gently. South had shot him in the back; that bitch. He shouldn't have been surprised, he guessed. But now he wondered if she had killed her brother too. Wash paused, and craned his neck around, hissing in pain; he could see clearly see York's healing unit attached to the back of his armor.

_"Now how in the hell...I blew that along with York's armor, before...unless...Delta! He lied to me about the armor components being complete! Son of a bitch. But how did it get here, on me unless – _York?" Wash called out hopefully. "York, buddy, are you there?" No answer. Of course. Why would York reveal himself to the man who was hunting down rogue and dead freelancers to retake their A.I.s? Wash smiled. This was the first good thing that had happened to him in months. York was alive. York had saved him.

"_And I'll be damned if I give him up,"_ Wash thought.

"Come in Command, this is Recovery One."

"Recovery One? But how – "

"South shot me in the back."

"Oh...Copy that. Agent South has indeed gone rogue...How are you alive Wash?"

"I had Agent York's healing unit, from before. I figured it would come in handy, so I detached it from the rest of the armor. It doesn't work at full capacity without an A.I. though, so I'm still hurt pretty bad. I'm gonna need an evac."

"Copy that Recovery One. Sending evac to your position now. See you soon Wash."

"Hey Stacy."

"Yeah, Wash?"

"When I get back do you wanna go out to dinner?"

"What, and be your rebound since your last hopeful tried to kill you? Get real Washington."

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Wash chuckled. "You can't blame a guy for trying, right?"

"Ha, we'll see Wash, we'll see."


	6. Desperate Times

**Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me. I make no profit from this, and no copyright infringement is intended.**

**Chapter Six: Desperate Times**

North looked at the ground passing by beneath them. They had been going in circles for what felt like ages. He looked at his chest, and noted the red seeping through the bandages York had put there. He looked up when York let out a pained noise as he rearranged in front of him.

"Hey York, we need to get you to a hospital man. Two bullet wounds and then running around like you have been can't be good," North spoke in concern.

"Ha! Speak for yourself, man. You're the one with a bullet in your chest," York said over his shoulder.

"I admit, I've felt better. It seems I'm always getting shot in the chest looking out for my sister," North smiled sadly. "Seriously though, at the very least aren't we low on fuel? You've been flying us in circles for a while now."

"So you noticed?" York said cheerfully. "I've just been trying to decide where to go. We can't go to just any hospital, you know. We have no idea how many people in the UNSC the Director has under his thumb. We can't risk getting outed."

"True enough. Do you have somewhere in mind?" North asked. York was silent a moment, and then sighed.

"There's somewhere nearby...its Insurrectionist controlled," he waited for North to respond.

"Well, considering how we thought Freelancer was one of the 'good guys', and the UNSC let them get away with who knows what...the Insurrection isn't looking so bad at this point, is it?" North spoke resignedly.

"My thoughts exactly...assuming they don't shoot us on sight," York smirked. "But it is a hospital, so they'll probably at least patch us up first." North started to laugh, and winced in pain.

"Let's do it. It's not like we have much more to lose."

"Alright, I think I can get us there in about twenty minutes."

The rest of their journey was spent in silence, pondering what a strange fate they ended up with, until York asked permission over the radio to set down on the hospital's helipad. Needless to say, the responder was shocked when York explained that he and his copilot were the ones who were injured, instead of bringing a patient in. York set the bird down and hopped out, trying not to reopen his wounds. He then helped North step down as well. The medical staff gave the obvious UNSC soldiers skeptical looks, but nevertheless brought out stretchers and carted the two men into the hospital.

They were both in surgery for a short while, and then they were put together in a recovery room. The doctor and nurses left the two men to drift off and hope that no one would try to kill them in their sleep.

The doctor that had been attending the two men hurried down the hall to a phone and dialed. After a moment someone picked up on the other end. "What's wrong doc? Someone giving you trouble again?"

"No, its just...something strange happened." the doctor whispered into the phone.

"Define strange," the gruff voice replied.

"Two men with significant wounds just landed a UNSC pelican on our roof. We took them into surgery, and they're in recovery now. They have no identification at all. Everyone knows this city is Insurrection controlled, and they could have made it to a UNSC outpost with the amount of fuel they have, but...they chose to come here. It's just...strange."

"I'll be there in half an hour," the phone went dead. The doctor sighed. He hoped the man on his way would ask questions first and shoot second this time. It upset the patients when he got worked up.

Half an hour later, the doctor heard the sound of heavy boots coming down the hallway. The receptionist must have directed him toward the room he was searching for. The doctor nodded at the Insurrectionist and indicated the room his new patients were currently asleep in. The man pulled up a program on a data pad, took a picture of each of the men with it and hit search. After a moment, the pad let out a 'beepboop' sound and two profiles popped up. The Insurrectionist's face darkened, and he seemed to growl in anger.

"C.T.," the doctor addressed him quietly, "what is it?"

"They're Freelancers," he replied.

"You mean – _the _Freelancers? They're...well they certainly didn't seem very threatening while they were conscious," the doctor supplied. "You got this from the information Connie retrieved back when – "

"Yes. She gave us profiles on all of them. We've been following them when we can. Although these two...they've been missing for a long time...not sure what that means. Maybe they're some of the ones who rebelled a while after Connie. We can't trust them, either way. Let me know when they wake up. I want to question them personally. I'm going to call Sven. If they're trying to bluff us I'll want back up."

"Right. I'll let you know," the doctor looked back and forth between the retreating Insurrection Leader and the men in the recovery room nervously, and then tried to get back to work. "I'm sure everything will be fine...oh, who am I kidding," he thought, and called over the intercom for a cleanup crew to stand by on the fourth floor. It was going to be a blood bath when those guys woke up. He almost felt bad for them.

North shifted on the hospital bed and opened his eyes slowly. The pain killers were awesome, except for the fact that they made him immensely sluggish. Everything was sort of blurry.

"Hey, York, you there buddy?" he asked, but it came out more like 'eyyor...youderbuy?'

"Mmm...yeah. Feeling much better. You?" He heard York off to his left.

"Yeah. I'm okay," the grogginess was clearing a little now. "How soon you think they'll let us leave?"

"Dunno. Nobody's come around to talk to yet. The nurses have been giving us kinda sketchy looks though."

"Hmm...," North was trying to be concerned, but it was difficult. He decided to give it a few more minutes.

Soon though, the sound of heavy boots entering the room had both their eyes wide open and reaching for weapons they no longer possessed. A tall man in typical Insurrectionist garb stood at the door, glaring at them.

"You're awake," he glared out them.

"That's somewhat debatable actually," North tried not to slur.

"You're freelancer agents," the man spat the words out like they were dirty.

"Nope. Not anymore," York replied cheerily. "We found out their dirty secrets, and now they're trying to kill us so we don't tell."

"You realize you're in an Insurrection controlled city?"

"Yep," North replied now. "Figured it was safer than a UNSC hospital. No way to tell who's good and bad there."

"I should just kill you here and now," The man growled.

"Or...," York looked at North, who nodded for him to go ahead, "We could join you. Once we're back in fighting condition, obviously. We're ready to take up the cause here. We've lost a lot of friends in the name of the "progress" the UNSC has been allowing. Freelancer is even trying to kill their loyal agents to cover up their messes now. We don't want any more to do with it."

"And how many of those friends did you kill yourself?" The Insurrectionist wasn't satisfied yet. "Friends like Connie," he growled. York and North were startled by that.

"Are you – York started.

" – the Leader?" North finished the question. They both stared at the man they had been after for such a long time. The man their friend had betrayed them for.

"You know...," North continued. "Connie never tried to explain to us. I'm not saying I blame her, of course. I doubt we would have listened at the time. I'm sorry about what happened to her. She truly was our friend. Tex was the one who...Tex was the one Connie left a message for. She went AWOL, broke into HQ, tried to put a stop to what was going on there."

"We actually helped her...a little," York continued. "We failed to accomplish much, but yeah, we're all on the run now."

The Leader watched them for a few moments, but he didn't look quite so much like he was going to murder them now. He looked sad, and tired.

"You know Connie had a hard time leaving all you assholes. She thought of most of you as friends too. Idiot, misguided friends.

"Look, I'm not promising you can join us. Trust has to be earned," he said threateningly, "but at least we'll see if your story pans out. Rest up, and be ready for a more thorough questioning. Though I'll most likely just kill you in the morning." He turned to leave. York called after him.

"I'm York, by the way. And this is North. What do we call you?" there was a moment of tense silence.

"C.T." he said, and walked away without looking back.


	7. Double Agent

**Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me. I make no profit from this, and no copyright infringement is intended.**

**Chapter 7: Double Agent**

The weeks passed slowly in the recovery wing of the hospital. The nurses and doctors were polite but distant. After C.T. had left that first day, another Insurrectionist had come into the room and handcuffed York and North to their beds. He stood guard most of the time, and he wouldn't speak to them at all. They heard the doctor call him Sven, and gathered that he was one of C.T.'s most trusted men, but learned nothing else. C.T. would come and go sporadically, sometimes questioning the Freelancers again, and sometimes just watching them. Sometimes he would ignore them entirely, visiting the hospital on unrelated business. This made the Freelancers suspect that this was a major hub of operations for the Insurrection. Eventually the doctor said they needed exercise and they were uncuffed from their beds for long enough to move around and alleviate their stiffness, always under Sven's watchful eye. York, friendly as always, tried to get the man to loosen up, and invited him to play cards with them sometimes, but he would just stare grumpily.

After a little over a month C.T. came in one day and spoke quietly to Sven for a moment, who then came over and uncuffed York and North. He walked away whistling, looking more cheerful than they had yet seen him. They looked to C.T. to explain.

"This is different. What's going on?" North asked.

"We were finally able to confirm all you told us. Looks like you guys are telling the truth. I'm moving you to a safehouse. At the moment you're too valuable a source of information to let into the field. We don't want you getting killed when we just saved your asses."

"Where is this safehouse?" York asked curiously.

"Somewhere the Director would never suspect – what used to be one of his own bases. We've had an agent there for several months, but the team she was gathering info from was transferred out to multiple new locations. The base has been designated obsolete, so our agent stayed and basically claimed it for us. We'll be using it as a safehouse for you two for multiple reasons. You'll be more likely to gain access to Freelancer transmissions with their equipment there, but its out of the way enough that it will be incredibly hard for anyone to find you."

"In other words, if we are still working for Freelancer, we'll be remote enough that no one can hear us scream," came York's snarky retort.

"Precisely," C.T. smirked. "Sven is readying transport now. You leave in ten minutes."

"What about you? You look like you're traveling as well. You're not coming with us?" North took notice of the gear C.T. carried with him.

"Nope. I'm heading to a different site altogether. Before you ask, its classified." He looked at the Freelancers meaningfully, "I hope you two are truly what you say you are, for your own sakes. The agent you'll be stationed with has a bit of a...personal grudge with Freelancer, and I honestly can't vouch for their self control."

"You mean a grudge worse than yours?" York asked, surprised.

"Well, maybe not worse, but still...self control issues," With that he picked up his gear and turned away, traveling down the hall at a quick pace. One of the nurses entered the room and handed each of the men some clean clothes and went on her way.

"So, if they think for a minute that we're still loyal to Freelancer or the UNSC they'll shoot us on sight," York said, annoyed.

"Sounds like," North replied with a sigh. "It's not surprsing. I mean, how many Innies have just you and I taken out, York? They have every right not to trust us."

"I know, but its just frustrating," he said as he pulled on the t-shirt and pants that had been provided. "We've been totally honest with them. It would just be nice to have a little trust between people, you know?"

"You're thinking about Carolina again, aren't you?" North put his hand on his friend's shoulder kindly. "You know she would have come around if you had just had time to explain it to her. She didn't truly distrust you. She was hurt and confused, York. If she had really thought you were the bad guy, you'd have been dead that day."

"...Thanks man. I guess you're right. I just hope we can convince this guy we're going to be stationed with."

The flight to the new base was uneventful, except for the fact that Sven seemed much more cheerful and would actually speak to them a little.

"So what, your boss said we're most likely not bad guys so you can be friendly now?" York asked.

"Ha! You wish you were so lucky," Sven replied in his mildly eastern European accent. "I have been stuck in that damn city for months. This trip is welcome."

"You would rather get stationed at a base in literally the middle of nowhere than in a city where there's things to do?" North questioned. Sven just smiled a little and didn't reply.

When they were about fifteen minutes from their destination Sven spoke again,"There's something for you in the first two crates there. Be ready when we land; there are still some enemies in the area."

York and North looked curiously at the crates, then made their way over and pried the tops off of the ones Sven had indicated. Both men grinned happily at the sight of the brand new armor before them.

"This is exactly like our old armor. Where did you get it?" North asked.

"Some of our men raided a Freelancer warehouse about a month ago. It does not have any of your super special enhancements, but C.T. had it painted to match your old armor. So we can always tell it is you, you know. We don't want any of our potential betrayers being able to blend in with us," Sven smirked at them.

"It's great that you have so much faith in us," came York's snarky reply. Nevertheless, both men pulled out the armor and suited up. It definitely felt great to have the armor back on. The past month they had been jumpy and stressed from feeling constantly overexposed. Now they visibly relaxed once they had secured their typical protection. Shortly after that Sven landed about 100 meters away from the edge of a canyon.

"We will walk from here. There is a concealed trail down the side of the canyon, but I warn you, it's a bit treacherous. Don't fall. I won't save you. And before you ask, there are still two UNSC troops stationed in the canyon that we cannot alert to our presence. Otherwise we would just fly right in. Luckily, they're idiots and won't notice anything less obvious."

The trek down was indeed treacherous, proving to be only about a foot wide in places and crumbling constantly. It took them several hours, but they eventually made it to the base of the canyon without death or injury. Sven then pulled out a short distance radio and called over it.

"Gold 1, this is Gold leader, do you read?"

"Affirmative Gold Leader. This is Gold 1. You are clear for entry. That old fart across the canyon is busy tinkering with his jeep again."

"Understood Gold 1. See you in five," Sven tucked the radio away again and signaled the freelancers to follow him. At first they crept from cover to cover, but in a few minutes they were close enough to the base that Sven relaxed and stopped sneaking.

"Hey Sister! Got some new charges for you!" he called. York and North both stopped and stared incredulously as a tan skinned teenage girl in a yellow tank top and insanely short shorts popped out of the base.

"Sven! I missed you so fucking much you asshole!" she leapt into his arms and pulled his helmet off, kissing him soundly on the lips. Now York and North understood why Sven was in such a good mood to be coming here.

"Hey, beautiful. Missed you too. But why aren't you wearing your armor? You know its not safe."

"Ah, don't be such a worrywart. Sarge isn't gonna try anything. That old man would never hit a girl."

"I am more worried about that crazy robot." Sven frowned at her.

"Who, Lopez? Nah, he just works on the jeep all day and says sarcastic things making fun of Sarge. Stupid old man doesn't understand a word he says. So, who're the new guys?" York and North were still trying to recover from the sight before them. This kid couldn't have been more than seventeen. How on earth was she an Insurrection soldier, let alone a spy, playing the part of UNSC soldier? They snapped out of it however, when they saw the mischievous look on Sven's face. Uh oh, what was it C.T. said about this kid having a personal vendetta?

"They're Freelancers," Sven said. The girl's smile vanished immediately and she disentangled herself from Sven's arms. She turned and walked quickly back into her base. The men heard some rustling around, and then she returned carrying two assault rifles pointed at York and North.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on!" York cried, panicking. Sven still hadn't given them any weapons.

"We're _former _Freelancers. We defected!" supplied North hurriedly. Sister pointed the rifles at the two men anyway, until Sven raised a hand to stop her.

"Sister, its okay. They seem legit. C.T. has cleared them. For now anyway. They're to be stationed here at the safehouse and provide any information on Freelancer for us that they can. If it does turn out they intend to betray us, then you are allowed to shoot them, but not before."

"Hmph. Fine. One wrong move, assholes. I'll be watching," she glared at them, which would have been rather intimidating if not for the fact that she was a tiny, scantily clad seventeen year old.

"Uh, C.T. said you had a grudge, but what's your deal?" York asked.

"Yeah, we don't want to push any buttons," North agreed. Sister just huffed and turned around, going back inside the base. Sven responded for her.

"Her brother is a Sim. Trooper. He was drafted and ended up here. I don't know if you knew, but when someone is assigned to a Sim. base their family is told they were killed in action, since that is most likely what will happen to them here. She was living on the streets when I found her. She saved my life, so I brought her aboard C.T.'s ship and she stayed with us. When we found out about Freelancer's treatment of the Sim. Troopers and that her brother was alive, well, she wanted to fight them. Can't really blame her, can you?"

"No, no I can't really blame her for that at all," North said sadly. He was thinking of his own sister now. His sister who had worked her way up in the ranks of the military and then Freelancer alongside him, and had then left him to die. But this girl had risked her life to come find her brother without any official training at all. The irony was not lost on him.

"We didn't know they did that, just that the reds and blues were the bottom of the barrel, so to speak. That's really awful," York shook his head. Did the Director have no limits?

"Hey, food's ready! Come and eat if you want, otherwise I'll eat it all, bitches!" The girl's loud voice came through the door of the base.

"Well she's certainly...interesting," York said cautiously.

"Don't let Sister's personality fool you," Sven said. "She may be a ditz, but she's deadly. I should know. I trained her myself from the time she was fourteen. Anyway, there's a seargent in red armor over at the other base, and his crazy Spanish robot called Lopez. You have to lay low. They can't know you're here or they may call their command."

"Why don't you just...I dunno shoot them," York asked as the three men walked inside the base.

"Because they were supposed to be deployed to a new outpost, but Sarge refused his relocation orders. Command may come looking for them. It will be much easier for them to assume he's a crazy old man who thinks there are still "blues" to fight here and them find nothing when we hide, than it would be to have the UNSC finding his dead body when someone gets around to figuring out why he never showed up to his new assignment."

"Why wouldn't you just hide the body. They'd assume he'd deserted," North asked.

"Nope," Sister replied this time, "Sarge would never desert. The military is his life. He thinks he's here fighting the good fight against the "blues," not that he's AWOL. It would be completely out of character for him."

"That's...really weird," York said.

"Oh, just wait til I tell you all the weird stories that happened here," Sister said. "AI that think they're ghosts, cyborgs and meatpuzzles, Tucker birthing an alien baby, Tex –

"Wait, you know Tex? She was here?"

"Chyeah, duh," Sister looked as if this should have been obvious.

"When was this? Is she okay?" the Freelancers cried.

"Oh, geez. You're gonna want to sit down. It's kind of a complicated story, and I only like telling it in five to ten minute intervals."

"Allright...Wait, what?" York and North said in unison. Sven laughed heartily at them. "Welcome to Blood Gulch."


	8. Raves and Ruses

******Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me. I make no profit from this, and no copyright infringement is intended.**

**Chapter Eight: Raves and Ruses**

The months passed mostly uneventfully in Blood Gulch. Sven didn't ever stay long at one time; he was mostly there to bring supplies. He would drop in once a month or so and mostly ignore York and North, preferring to spend as much time as possible with Sister. The girl showed the freelancers the computer down in the caves and they were able to get it online and reprogrammed so that York could monitor transmissions in the area without being noticed. They had to earn their keep with the Innies, after all. North and Sister grew especially close, and York was glad that his friend had found someone to fill the painful gap that South had left.

Since Sarge was technically AWOL he wasn't getting supplies sent to him, so once in a while he would call a "truce" for a day and trade Sister some sort of supplies, usually useless old warthog parts, for food rations. Despite continually complaining that old people were gross, Sister clearly felt obligated to prevent the man from starving to death. Meanwhile, York and North would stand by out of sight with sniper rifles in case Sarge or Lopez tried anything funny. Sarge still had no idea they were there; once in a while they would capture Lopez when they found him spying on them and reset his memory banks so that he would forget about them.

So it was that one day, about a year into their stay in Blood Gulch, York was monitoring the radio and North was on lookout duty while Sister was sleeping in after another of her impromptu "raves" that only consisted of the three of them listening to loud music and dancing around like idiots. Why Sven kept bringing Sister glow sticks, they didn't know. York reflected on this in his mildly hungover state. He'd met Carolina at a club; she was an excellent dancer. Their little dance nights here in Blood Gulch were fun, but inevitably led to York having a rough stroll down memory lane the next day. It was good the others were occupied; he was best left alone on days like these. Today's reminiscence was cut short though, when a readout popped up on the screen in front of him showing a small ship landing near the edge of the canyon.

"North! North get down to the caves right now. A vehicle just landed that isn't Sven – UNSC markings. We need to hide," York called over his radio hurriedly.

"I saw it land. I'm on my way; let me just make sure Sister's actually awake and wearing her armor," North replied calmly.

"Make it fast." said York. He heard Sister moaning about waking up so early in the background while North's radio was still on, and heard North telling her what was going on.

"Alright, I'm on my way down. She's at least partially awake. It'll have to do. At least I already made coffee this morning; that should help."

"Man, I'm usually the one making light of the situation, North. This canyon's rubbing off on you," York tried to tease, but he was worried. On the bright side, it was only one vehicle so they should be able to deal with that few of people if necessary. On the other hand, if whoever it was figured out that Sister's military ID was a fake, and the freelancers were forced to kill him...their "safe house", as CT had called it originally, would be a bust and they would be on the run again. The two men waited, watching the surveillance screens for whoever had found their base to appear.

"Holy crap! It's Wash!" York cried.

"Are you sure?" North leaned in closer to the screen. "Hey does this thing get audio?"

"Hang on, I had it working the other day. Aha! Ow!" York bumped his head and he came back up from under the console, and North stifled a chuckle. They both leaned in to watch the surveillance.

Agent Washington trekked down into the canyon toward the base designated Blood Gulch Outpost Alpha, keeping a close eye out for any movement. There was none. In fact, it was almost eerily silent. At least there weren't bodies littering the ground around him, like on many of his previous recovery missions.

"Hello? Hello!" He called out. "Anybody here?" No answer. Wash sighed and turned on his radio. "Recovery One calling Command. Come in Command."

"Go ahead Recovery One; we have you."Stacy's voice crackled back.

"I am at Outpost Alpha – looks deserted," Maybe his job would be easy today.

"Roger that. See if you can find any evidence that would suggest where they all might –

"HEY! A-hole! What's with all the noise?! People are trying to sleep here!" the loud voice startled Wash, and effectively cut off his conversation with Command.

"Umm...scratch that command. It appears that I've found someone. Recovery One out." He clicked off the radio as the yellow armored soldier in front of him walked toward him and groaned.

"Ugh...oh, man..."

"Hi. I'm Agent Washington. This is Blue Base, correct?" Wash said, trying to sound friendly.

"It was." said the girl indignantly.

"Was?" Wash raised his eyebrows.

"Everybody's gone. Transferred. Something about this base being obsolete now..." The statement came across as a mix between annoyance and apathy.

"Right...where did they go?" Wash asked, losing patience already.

"I don't know, all different places. Nobody told me anything!" Sister practically shouted.

"Well, I'm trying to locate some people who have experience with the Freelancer Program." Wash tried to explain.

"Freelancer? Is that the band we had here last night?" the girl tilted her head sideways like a curious puppy might.

"You had a party here?" Wash was incredulous now.

"Yeah! I throw raves here every night – charge five bucks a head. Last night, I made ten bucks. Ooo ooo! Nice."

Wash winced at her sound effects and wondered if she charged herself five dollars to get into her party, and who the other five had come from.

"You use the base for raves? That doesn't seem like the proper use for official resources," Wash said skeptically.

"What are you, like a cop or something?" Sister asked suspiciously.

"No," Wash sounded immensely offended.

"Cause if you are, and I ask you, you have to tell me. That's totally a law or something," She sounded thoroughly pleased with herself now.

"I'm not the police, and that's not a real law," Wash was unimpressed.

"Well if you're not a cop, then how do you know its not a real law?" Sister demanded. "Busted!"

"You caught me," Wash sighed. "Hey, is there anybody...else...smart...here that I can talk to?" he asked hopefully.

"Yeah, right, like I'm gonna tell you. I don't rat people out, COP!" Wash winced. Her voice was really grating.

"Okay, I'm gonna leave now. Good luck with your empty base and your raging insanity," and people called him insane? Yeah right.

"Yeah? Whatever! Good luck with being a cop, COP!" Sister shouted after him. She smirked inside her helmet and waited until he was walking over the hill toward red base before ducking behind cover and making her way as quickly as she could to her team down in the caves. York and North were literally rolling on the ground laughing when she reached them.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe he was talking about proper use of official resources!" York howled.

"Good ole Wash," North grinned.

"Sister, that was amazing! You are a great actress!" York said.

"Well, the Insurrectionists did let her infiltrate a UNSC base as a spy when she was only seventeen. She fooled her own brother. Did you really think she wouldn't be able to fool Wash?" North laughed.

"That's a good point. Wash was always a pretty gullible kid. Remember the thing with the jet packs?" York and North burst out in laughter anew.

"He said he was going over to Red base next. This should be good," Sister said, rearranging the camera angles on the computer as the men pulled themselves together. "I know Sarge has probably got some new booby traps installed by now. Hopefully they work better than the last ones. I'm gonna go mess with them some more," Sister grinned and sprinted off toward the cave exit that came out near red base, while York and North tried to compose themselves enough to gather some sort of useful information from their surveillance.

"Come in command," Wash grumbled.

"Hello Washington," came Stacy's bored voice. "We have you. How was the investigation at Blue Base?"

"Enlightening. Going to try Red Base now. I'm hoping things are going to be a little more...normal," All Wash's hopes were dashed as a cardboard cut-out of a pink soldier sprung up before him and a recording began playing.

"Halt! In the name of the red, I mean uh, lightish red army! This base is operating at full capacity, and if you come in here, you're gonna get into a big, uh, slap fight! Don't come any further, ooo la la!"

Wash sighed. What would his Freelancer friends say if they could see him now? Surely he would be the shame of his team for being given an assignment such as this.

"I'm gonna have to call you back," Wash said dully into his radio. He trudged forward toward red base, only to have another cut-out, this one of a maroon soldier, pop out from behind a rock.

"This is your last warning! Stay out! I love math! Your only hope of survival is to kiss my commander's ass!"

"What...the...," Wash stepped around the cutout, shaking his head in disbelief. A third cut-out, an orange one, popped out. It was full of bullet holes.

"And here's another warning! I know the other was supposed to be the last, but I never listen to orders, cause I'm too lazy and stupid!" Wash walked right past this one without stopping. "And ugly. Did I mention ugly?"

"This is gonna be a waste of time, I can tell already," Wash said to himself as he looked at what was in front of him. Another red armored soldier popped up in front of him with a yell.

"Agh! Freeze intruder! Stop your intrudin' right there!" said the red.

"Who made these things?" Wash asked.

"I did!" the red soldier replied.

"Wait, you're real?" Wash asked to red soldier. Better to humor the man into thinking his trick had worked. A happy crazy person was probably easier to deal with.

"Of course I am! You fell for a classic misdirection!" Sarge said happily. "I've still got it, heh heh."

"_Esta todo bien aqui?" _Came a robotic Spanish voice.

"We're fine Lopez. Just caught myself a dirty blue. How many does that make this week?"

"_Uno,"_ the Latino robot replied.

"Yahtzee. We're on a hot streak."

"Uh, I'm not actually a Blue," Wash said, slightly concerned that this man would actually shoot first and ask questions never. "I'm from Command."

"Command? No kiddin'," Sarge lowered his shotgun and Wash relaxed...a little.

"I was hoping you could tell me about the soldiers transferred out of this outpost."

"You mean Grif and Simmons? Those traitors," Sarge growled. "I told 'em not to go! The battle here isn't even over yet!"

"Umm...It looks over to me," Wash said.

"Not while there's a single Blue left in this canyon! Which there is – a single Blue," Sarge pointed out. "Victory, or death."

"I see..." Wash did not see.

"That's why I refused my relocation orders. Obviously Command wasn't thinking clearly."

"So...you're AWOL then," Wash said slowly.

"I, uh...A-what?" Wash wasn't certain if the red was pretending not to understand, or if he actually didn't.

"DON'T TELL HIM ANYTHING UNTIL YOU TALK TO A LAWYER!" Sister shouted from the hill nearby, "YOU HAVE RIGHTS!"

"I'M NOT A COP!" Wash shouted back at her, exasperated.

"HEY! BEAT IT YOU LITTLE TRAMP!" Sarge added. "You see why I can't go?" he demanded of Wash.

"Why not just attack her and win then? It would take about ten seconds." Wash asked, confused.

"You're old and I hate you!" Came Sister's shouts.

"That's the problem. I can't attack a girl. So we're locked, in an epic stalemate."

"You're kidding me," This guy was even crazier than the yellow chick.

"Plus, she's cooking something up, and I gotta be ready! I hear her running training ops every night! I see them out there with their glow sticks and their tribal drum beats – boomchicka oomchicka oomchicka oomchicka...," Sarge stared off into the distance, and Wash could just imagine the suspicious look on his face under the helmet.

"Well. This has been really – informative. But I need to find someone with experience with Artificial Intelligence," Wash said. _"Maybe some actual intelligence too,"_ he thought.

"Huh? Oh, right," Sarge said, coming back to the conversation at hand. "You want Caboose then. He got infected for a little while I think."

"Great. Caboose. Do you know where he is?"

"Of course! We intercepted the Blue's orders. We got it right here. Lopez!" he called.

"_Si?_"

"Get this guy the Blue's relocation orders."

"_Si._"

Sarge turned back to Wash. "He probably converted them to Spanish...," he began apologetically. "so they might be a little hard to understand."

"Yeah. They wouldn't be the first thing today."

"SHUT UP, COP!" came Sister's voice again. This was the most fun she'd had in ages. She frowned as she headed back down the hill though. That guy was a Freelancer, like York and North.

C.T. still had his doubts about her friends after all these months. At least he had last time Sven had talked to him. They hadn't heard from him in a little while now. She assumed her orders were still as they always were – if they act suspicious in any way, shoot first, ask questions later. She trusted York and North though...As long as they didn't make contact with this guy it should be fine...right?

"I guess I'll just have to wait and see what they do," she muttered to herself.


	9. Murder and Memories

******Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me. I make no profit from this, and no copyright infringement is intended.**

**Chapter Nine: Murder and Memories**

North and York were packing. They were going to follow the Freelancer in steel and yellow armor. They had their provisions. They had their first aid kits. They had a whole lot of weapons. Weapons that Sister was not authorized to give them. But Sister wasn't fighting them on the issue. She was standing on top of the base, acting as lookout. She hadn't spoken to either of the men since they said they were going after the one they called Wash. She could have told them no, and if they resisted her it would have been at best insubordination, and at worst treason, because in the Insurrectionist Army, she outranked them.

But Sister didn't say anything. She just walked to the top of the base and stood looking out of the canyon in front of her, thinking about how people always seemed to leave her. Mom left to join the circus. Grif left to join the army (granted, he had been drafted), and then he'd left her here. He didn't even question it when she didn't get shipped out somewhere new or try to get her reassigned with him. And now York and North, who had over the past year become two of the best friends she'd ever had, were up and leaving her in this god-forsaken canyon too. How were they even going to follow this Agent Washington without a vehicle? They were supposed to be super soldiers and they seriously just made shit up as they went? No wonder the Freelancer Program was collapsing.

It wasn't as if she had some deep defining grudge against everyone that had ever let her down or some psychological shit like that. She wasn't like that. Sister was free-spirited – live and let live. But there came a time in a girl's life when she got tired of being left behind. I mean, they could have at least _asked _if she wanted to come along. Hell, she probably knew as much or more about Project Freelancer than they did, because of trying to locate Grif. She was trying not to let her anger boil over and do something rash; she had gotten better about in the year she had spent with the two relaxed and even-tempered men.

Sister made up her mind. She was in charge of this base, and she trusted York and North not to return to the bad guys. Therefore, she was not going to let them run off and endanger themselves without her, nor let them jeopardize their friendly status with the Insurrection. Sven would be here tomorrow with more supplies on the pelican. She could get the Freelancers to wait that long and convince Sven to take them where York and North wanted to go. Sister would simply go with them and tell C.T. that she thought it was relevant to the cause – which it was, just a bit less so now that Freelancer was less of a problem than it had been previously.

Sister squinted. Across the canyon it looked like Sarge was heading somewhere in the warthog – not toward blue base, so she wasn't worried about it. She turned around to walk below and tell her friends that she was coming with them on their fool's errand – and stopped short. Lopez stood on the other side of base's roof, pointing a pistol directly at her.

"Son of a bitch!" – three dull pops echoed across the canyon.

York and North were readying their supplies to go after Wash. He was their best chance at locating Delta and Theta, and after the radio communication to Sarge they had overheard minutes ago (that they could easily identify as falsely spliced together) they were in an extra hurry.

"You know C.T. is probably going to think we betrayed him," North said.

"Yeah, if Sister tells him," York replied.

"Sven will tell him when he sees that we're not here tomorrow," North pointed out. "No matter how he feels about Sister."

"Do you honestly think we're gonna get another chance at this?" York snapped. North frowned at him and he sighed. "I'm sorry man; I've just buried the frustration for a long time now."

"Don't be. I feel the same, and I'm with you on this. I just feel like we're taking advantage of Sister's trust, big time. I mean, if we explain she might just come with us. After all, she has as much reason to thwart Freelancer as we do, what with her brother and all," North's usually mild face was lined with concern for the girl he thought of as his adopted sister. York rubbed his temples in frustration.

"Dang it, you're right. I'm so used to keeping it all close to the chest that I didn't even consider it. We've got everything pretty much ready to go. Let's go up top and ask her to come."

At that moment they heard Sister's shout and three muffled cracks outside.

"Was that what I think it was?" York asked.

"Sister!" North was already out the door and headed upstairs. York followed right after him and both men were on the roof in moments. Sister lay on the roof, looking for all the world like she was just watching the fluffy clouds go by, were it not for the blood seeping out of her armor from three bullet holes. They spotted Lopez sprinting toward red base.

"York, catch the son of a bitch, now!" North shouted.

"On it!" York took off after Lopez, and North knelt down next to Sister.

Kaikaina felt funny, almost like she couldn't breathe. Someone was kneeling over her. It reminded her of something from before.

"Sister! Sister! Kaikaina! You've got to stay conscious!"

"Sure thing...besty...bff...bosom buddy...haha...I said bosom," Sister rambled.

North didn't move her yet, first assessing the damage. Two shots to the chest, one to the head, although that one had glanced off her helmet and didn't seem likely to have caused more than a concussion.

"I'm okay...totally fine...," Sister rambled on. "Did I ever tell you guys 'bout the time...ice skating...underwater for three hours..." That's what it was. A memory. Something happened just now that reminded her. This hurt more though. She tried to think of a better memory.

_**Kaikaina was on her back, staring at the sky. She and Dexter in the green grass. Soft wind.**_

_**Blood red sky, sunset. Or was that blood trickling down her visor? Like rain.**_

_**It rained when Dex left. On a ship that took him to the stars.**_

"Stupid starships...fuckers..." That was _not_ a better memory.

"You just keep talking, Sister. Just stay conscious. I'm gonna pick you up and carry you downstairs now. We're gonna call Sven to come take you to the hospital," North had survived similar injuries – twice. It was a good bet that someone as tenacious as Sister didn't have any intention of dying just yet. That thought was all that kept North from panicing, but only just. He had failed to protect someone he cared for again...

_**Kaikaina had found her own way to the stars.**_

_**A bad way with a handsome mask.**_

_**She left what was behind the mask behind her.**_

_**But then it was raining again.**_

_**And she was on the streets.**_

_**Debased and abused.**_

_**Starving and scrounging.**_

_**But Sven saved her from that.**_

_**And then Kaikaina saved him from a bullet.**_

"Mmm...Sven is good. Don't need Hospital. I ever tell you how I met Sven? See, there was this guy I ran off with because he had his own ship, but he was a douche-face, and then there was this pimp, but then Sven showed up..."

_**That was destiny, she thought – to find her way out.**_

_**To find Dexter again. To find out what they did to him here.**_

_**Destiny was cruel. Back and forth, it made her dizzy to be with and without.**_

"Sister?" North asked after she was quiet a moment. He had made it back downstairs and lay her gently down to take off her armor and apply first aid. York staggered in dragging an unconscious, that is powered down, Lopez and tossed the robot on the floor.

"How is she?" York asked.

"Barely conscious," North replied vaguely, digging through the first aid kit, "Where the hell is the bio-gel? There's supposed to be bio-gel in here!"

"It's the stuff that looks like Aloe Vera."

"Oh, is that what everyone always meant by that?"

"You seriously just realized that?"

"Shut up."

"You're right, its not the time," York knelt down on Sister's other side and lay a hand on her bloodied head. The movement caused her to stir.

"Huh? No...no hospital...mmfine...wait, are we...goin' see C.T.? He's...pretty good guy, e'en though he acts like an ass some...love the hair...you know his name's not really C.T.? He refuses to answer to his real name anymore, since Connie...you ever meet Connie? I only did a couple times...she was really cool...always wanted...sister...Dex is dumb...Dex? Are you here?"

_**What was her identity without those she loved around her?**_

_**Was identity transient? C.T. wasn't C.T. But he was. He had made her who she was. **_

_**Sven brought her to C.T. - He had saved them and made them better.**_

_**But that wasn't good enough now.**_

_**She couldn't save Dex.**_

_**She couldn't save herself.**_

_**Did that make her no one?**_

North heard Kaikaina's rambling while he applied the bio-gel the Sister's wounds to stop the bleeding, and his heart broke for the girl. No one should have to go through all she had by the time they were was eighteen.

York had moved to the long distance radio and called Sven, requesting immediate evac. Sven responded stoicly as ever to the information, but confirmed that he would be in the air in two minutes. The two Freelancers didn't have to have the conversation deciding that tracking down their old teammate would have to wait. Sister was here right now, and they weren't going to abandon her.

York began fiddling with Lopez's innards after he got off the radio.

"What are you doing?" North asked quietly.

"Same thing we always do – reset his memory banks so he doesn't know we're here. Only this time I'm gonna make sure his video logs still show he shot Sister, so he thinks she's actually dead." York replied while squinting at some wires. "Aha!" He pulled up the robot's video feeds and began editing. "Did you get the bleeding stopped?" he glanced up at North.

"Yeah, she was going into shock, but I think she's stable now. When will Sven be here?" North tried to keep the fear out of his voice. Sister wasn't in the clear yet by any means.

"Soon," York replied, and kept working.

Sven was not pleased when he set his ship down directly in front of blue base. Sister may well have been dying, and he didn't have anyone to blame for it or kill for it. York had explained that the robot had snuck up on Sister while she was on watch. Even the best training wasn't perfect, he supposed. Sven would have preferred it if he could have smashed the robot into tiny unrepairable pieces and seen its electronic guts spilled out across the canyon, but strategically York had made the right call rewriting the thing's memories and dropping it back at red base.

The freelancers carried Sister gently but quickly out to the ship, and Sven was in the air again before they had even spoken. Sven pushed the bird hard, straining its upper limits of speed the entire way back to their hospital headquarters. It was reckless flying, but it would have taken something far less precious to Sven than Sister's life to slow him down. York and North, for their part, weren't overconcerned with Sven's wild flying – 479er had frequently flown like this with them in tow on missions in the past.

When they were most of the way there and Sven had confirmed with North that Sister had not resumed bleeding and her heart rate was steady, he asked for a normal report on their situation. York and North looked at one another for a moment, understanding what one another wanted to say to Sven just from working together for such a long time. The non-verbal communication came in handy on a regular basis. They confirmed with one another that they would trust Sven.

"A freelancer came looking for the reds and blues that had been stationed at Blood Gulch. He was asking about who had experience with the A.I. It's been pretty quiet on that front for the past year, so our bet is the Meta is moving again," North explained.

"We especially think so because the red sergeant received an obviously false transmission from "Command" ordering him to reassemble the red team, but it was spliced together from fragments of another message. We're pretty sure we know the voice that was on the radio too. She only works with Recovery Agents, not Sim. Troops, so she wouldn't have called Sarge anyway," York continued.

"I think I can confirm your suspicions," Sven began. "We've had a report of a lot of activity at another Sim. base called Valhalla. Apparently some crazy stuff went down when a ship crashed there a few weeks ago."

"Sven, we're going after them – Wash and the Meta both. We have unfinished business," York said.

"I know," he replied. "I'm going with you, as soon as we're sure Sister is safe."

"Without orders from C.T.?" York asked.

"C.T. trusts my judgement. Besides, he's been out of radio contact for days."

"Should we be worried?" North asked.

"Not yet. He does that sometimes," Sven replied nonchalantly.

The feeling was all too familiar as they set down on the roof of the hospital and a stretcher was rushed out to carry Sister to surgery. The men followed after, wishing they could be there with her.

"You remember when we brought Maine home after he got shot in the throat? Sven flying like a maniac has sort of thrown me down memory lane," North watched as Sister was wheeled into surgery.

"Yeah, Wash was really torn up about it – best friends and all. We almost lost Maine then. I understand what Wash was feeling a bit more clearly now. I know we've lost others; hell we almost lost you once before that. But this is like deja vu – its eery," York recalled comforting his friend as they watched the surgery.

"I guess we did lose Maine, in the end," North sighed sadly.

"Maybe," York looked thoughtful.

"What do you mean?" North looked away from the lit 'surgery' sign and at his friend.

"Something Delta said to me after the Meta almost killed us that time. He was certain that Sigma was the one manipulating Maine – he wanted to achieve Metastability by combining with his siblings," York frowned, deep in thought.

"So, if we get Sigma out of his head...," North suggested.

"He may go back to being good ole, only kill you if you actually piss him off first, Maine. It's a long shot though. It's been a long time. I don't know how much of him is left in there," York shrugged.

"True – we can spot the differences in Wash's personality from a distance when we haven't seen him in years, and he only had Epsilon in his head for a short time." North pondered the idea.

"Either way, if we get the chance we may be able to do some good," York decided.

The doctor soon came out of surgery and Sven came over from where he had been pacing non-stop. The three men looked at the doctor expectantly.

"She's going to be fine. That armor is really something. The bullets didn't penetrate her body deep enough to do major damage to any organs, so she's mostly going to be recovering from blood loss and a concussion. I'm going to keep her sedated for a while though. Sven, you remember what happened last time we didn't do that."

Sven chuckled and the freelancers looked at him questioningly, "A story for another time my friends."  
He turned back to the doctor. "We have a mission to complete, doctor. Give Kaikaina my love when she wakes, and tell C.T. if he makes contact that our freelancers are finally earning their keep, but don't speak to anyone else about it. You two, lets go. You'd better be able to track this guy down again," Sven headed back to the roof and York and North followed.

"What do you take us for, amateurs?" York joked. At long last, they were going to have a chance to regain some of what they had lost.


	10. Retirement Planning

******Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me. I make no profit from this, and no copyright infringement is intended.**

**Chapter Ten: Retirement Planning**

North skirted the edges of the canyon base of Valhalla, quietly avoiding the soldiers that remained here after the recent incident. He had to dive out of the way of a suit of light blue armor falling from a boulder above him, and he heard the blue armored simulation trooper above him speak over his radio, "I'm going to have to call you back."

North vacated the area in the blue's line of sight just in time as he turned to clamber after the vacant armor. North continued heading toward the blue base and wished he could stop and enjoy the scenery – magnificent waterfall, beach front property – a guy could retire here. Instead, he had spent the last hour stopping only to avoid being spotted – or run over – by the soldiers currently careening in a wild chase around the landscape. He was trying to get close enough to Wash or the "ghost" Church to learn their plan. He knew from what Tex had long ago told him and from what Sister had told him of Blood Gulch that this must be the Alpha A.I., hidden away with false memories by the Director. The problem was that he and Wash wouldn't hold still long enough for North to hear their conversation.

He paused for a moment to watch Wash destroy a Hornet single-handed and grinned. Wash always had been a little bit of a show off. North then made his way toward the colorful simulation troopers as they regrouped, and he wished he had Tex's invisibility enhancement.

"Alright, I need suggestions," Wash was saying. "The Freelancer Command Facility is an underground complex of secure bunkers and fortified chambers. Let's put our heads together and see if we can figure out a way to get in there."

"I have an idea."

"And 'let's not do it' is not an acceptable plan."

Normally North would have smiled at the man they had always known as the rookie taking on the responsibility of leading his own team, despite the dubious ability of said team. In this case however, he was trying to figure out why Washington needed to break into Freelancer Command if he was still working for them. North hoped that this was a sign that Wash was on their side after all, and that he and York would be able to reunite with their friend at last.

"We have to get in there," Wash was saying.

"Why?" asked the maroon one – Simmons, if North remembered correctly from what Sister had told him.

"Cause we need to unlock the Alpha." Wash said.

"The what?"

"It's the main A.I. from Project Freelancer," Church said. "You know all the A.I's we've been dealing with? It's where they were all copied from originally."

"You can't copy an A.I.," Simmons said. North knew he was right – they had taken classes on their A.I. companions, after all. Wash knew this as well – there was no way Wash didn't realize that Church was an A.I. In fact, since Wash had met all the A.I. there was no way he didn't know that Church was the Alpha.

"You'll understand everything soon enough," Wash said cryptically. He was playing this really close to the chest. While the Reds argued over whether or not they would accompany Wash, North wondered how long the man had been planning this, and what exactly he was trying to accomplish. After what the program had done to Wash, North suspected revenge was what the gray freelancer had in mind. If that was the case, North had to know what Wash was planning for the A.I. before he could reveal himself to his friend. Saving them was still York and North's main goal. Wash might have the opposite in mind after what he had gone through with Epsilon. The last few years had clearly changed the attitude of the formerly compassionate and quirky man they had known to something darker.

Some of Wash's old charm was intact though. North forced himself not to laugh as Wash demoted Sister's brother to Minor Junior Private Grif, Negative First Class, and reminded himself to let Sister in on that little piece of comedy when he next spoke to her. He felt guilty that she couldn't be with them now and see her sibling.

"We still need to figure out how we're getting in there," Wash said, and North focused again on trying to learn what the plan was.

"Mr. Washington?" said the blue one, who had been quiet this entire time. "I have an idea."

"I really shouldn't even bother asking, should I?" Washington looked Church.

"I don't know. Caboose – an idea? I think he's bluffing."

"No, it's a really good idea!" Caboose insisted. "We drive there."

"Yeah, he was bluffing."

"We're going to Freelancer City, right? The place where Freelancers are from. And this is a Freelancer car! If they think we are Freelancers because we are in their car, they will just let us right in!" Caboose explained proudly.

"But you don't look like Freelancers. Or Recovery Agents." Wash protested.

"They can't see inside a tank," Caboose said smugly. North was beginning to suspect Caboose was much smarter than the others seemed to think. As the group began arguing over who would ride where, North slipped away, back towards where he was to report to York and Sven.

Washington thought he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned in time to see a flash of dark purple disappear behind a rock.

_ "North? That's not possible. North is dead," _Wash frowned in confusion. He expected the Meta to follow them. Hell, that was his plan, thought he wasn't telling these idiots just yet. He could even have believed York was following him, since he was almost positive the man was still alive after the mysterious healing unit incident, but North?

"_I am positive that North is dead...isn't he? There's no way he could have...unless..." _Maybe people were right. Maybe he was insane.

"N_o. No, I'm totally, completely sane. I keep telling everyone – telling myself. I'm just seeing things. The light is playing tricks. I'm just seeing what I want to see," _because Wash definitely didn't want to be alone in the insane task he had given himself. He looked over at Church and wondered how the A.I. would take the news when Wash revealed the truth to him. Thinking about what had been done to Alpha, about the false memories he had, the denial, and about the pain the truth would cause him... _"Even I have to admit that it seems better to believe in ghosts than face the reality of what's about to happen."_

Sven had landed the pelican a little way back from the edge of the waterfall so that the noise of the water would block out any sounds the vehicle made and keep them concealed. Wash's team had left by the time North got back to the top, but that didn't matter. A pelican was faster than a tank any day.

"Hey guys, I'm back."

"Son of a bitch!" York toppled off the rock where he had been perched, and almost landed in the river. "Don't sneak up on me like that, man."

"Hey, I'm the reconnaissance guy. I'm supposed to be sneaky."

"Well?" Sven asked, stony faced as usual.

"This is gonna be a tough one to pull off...They're going to Command," North said.

"What? Why?" York asked.

"Wash told them he's going to try and steal the Alpha A.I." North replied.

"But the Alpha is – " Sven started.

"I know. I think he's trying to bring down Freelancer," North explained.

"By himself? Is he insane?" Sven questioned.

"Well, some people have said so," York supplied. He looked back at North, "So, he's been playing them, biding his time as a recovery agent?"

"Yep, it seems likely he's been planning his revenge for awhile now. I'd wager that he's known what was going on since Epsilon unraveled in his head."

"The Meta will go after him," York's forehead creased with concern.

"Wash is a smart kid. He'll expect that at this point. He may even be planning for it. He may have had the same idea we had about getting all those A.I. out of Maine's head. If anyone tried to save Maine, it would be him," North said. Sven was frowning, deep in thought.

"How exactly do you think Agent Washington is going to exact his revenge...or help Agent Maine for that matter? I have it on good authority that the Director is very rarely in residence at Freelancer Headquarters. If Washington wants to reveal to the UNSC what the Director has done, he would just take Alpha directly to them, not risk losing him in an onslaught on the Freelancer base.

"After an experience such as this man has suffered...I know he was your friend and you wish him to be on our side, but I cannot trust his judgment. And considering he may be trying to revive what is left of his old friend's mind, he may be trying to destroy the A.I. I cannot allow that to happen. I know that C.T. would want us to recover them. They could give us an extraordinary amount of data."

"Sven, Delta and Theta aren't just computer programs full of data to harvest. We won't let them be used like that ever again!" North said angrily.

"I will not betray C.T.'s confidence in me, North. I have a mission to complete here too. But I understand that you have come to see your own A.I. as friends; I will not let anyone harm them while I am able, just as you have taken care of Kaikaina this year when I was fulfilling other duties. Will you trust me that much – as I have come to trust you?" Sven waited for the man to answer.

North and York exchanged a glance. What Sven said hit home. He had no reason to trust them when they met, and he left them in a box canyon in the middle of nowhere with the girl he loved for months at a time. If they were honest, Sven could have killed them that first day in Blood Gulch and C.T. would have believed him if he had said they tried to turn on him. Sven was a good man, and a good soldier. He was someone they could trust.

Wash, on the other hand, was operating in the aftermath of a mental breakdown caused by a fragment of a computer program which they wanted to save, and he had witnessed the apparent death or betrayal of every person he was close to in a relatively short amount of time. He had every reason to be unstable. If they were lucky they might be able to rescue Wash, but they couldn't trust him.

North sighed and looked back to Sven. "It's gonna be hard to get into the facility, considering that we're dead fugitives and all."

"We will manage. Load up; we need to beat them there." Sven headed for the pilot seat of the pelican. York rolled his eyes behind the man as he and North boarded the ship.

"We'll manage? How, with psychic paper?"

"I can talk my way in anywhere," Sven said casually.

"You're just a regular Renaissance man, aren't you?" came York's sarcastic reply.

"Hey, I may have taught Sister to shoot straight, but that street goes both ways. When it comes to acting, I learned from the best."

"Sister taught you to lie – I mean act?" York asked, incredulous.

"Always the tone of surprise," came North's voice. "Again, she fooled her own brother with that military cover story, remember? I thought you would just have accepted how freakishly good at that she is by now. I think its a natural ability of little sisters. South always did they same thing, although as we got older she ended up punching people first and sweet-talking later more often."

"Yeah, Sister is gonna be pissed she missed out on this," Sven said.

"I wish I could have told her brother that she's all right at least," North sighed.

"Hey, in a perfect world all this will work out nicely and we'll get Delta, Theta, and Wash back, and we'll be with Sister tomorrow, her brother and friends in tow, with a heroic tale of rescue and adventure. Then we could retire." York said cheerily.

"Yeah, in a perfect world." Not even North could be that optimistic.


	11. What Makes Us Human

******Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me. I make no profit from this, and no copyright infringement is intended.**

**Chapter 11: What makes us Human**

"Command Tower, this is Bravo One, requesting permission to land," Sven radioed in as they neared Freelancer Headquarters. York and North tensed as they waited for a reply, half expecting to be shot out of the sky.

"Bravo One, I don't show you on the roster."

"Copy that, Command Tower. It's unscheduled. We had an emergency in the field. Covert Op classified Level Zero."

"Oh, the Level Zero? You picked up Recovery One? We didn't expect you back so soon. He'll need to be debriefed right away. You're cleared to land Bravo One; set down on pad three."

"Copy that, Tower, coming in now," Sven ended the call and glanced back at the two freelancers behind him. "I told you I could get us in."

"You were perfect – completely seamless," North said.

"That should not have been so easy," York added.

"Well, Connie gave us a complete run down of how things are run when she was still here, and we have enough spies that we know a lot of what is going on with the UNSC most of the time. Taking into account what is going on with the Meta, it was easy to get him to jump to conclusions. People see and hear what they want to," Sven shrugged.

"Let's just hope this works all the way in," York said as they exited the pelican cautiously. "We still need to avoid anyone who might recognize us."

"Where are we headed now?" Sven asked.

"Assuming Wash wants to destroy everything to do with the AI program, and the Meta wants to capture the Alpha, I'd say holo-storage," York replied.

"We'd better be quick," North added. "You heard how the tower responded to Sven saying Level Zero. The Meta is the only thing that would cause that, so they must know he's nearby."

"Good point; let's move," York led the way the the bunker which led down to the holo-storage facility. They soon saw that North was right. The base was a madhouse of activity, preparing for something major to happen soon. The three men's movement across the base was painstakingly slow as they tried to avoid being noticed. About halfway there, the saw Wash and his team of misfits enter the main gate.

"We have to hurry. The Meta is likely right on their tail," York said.

"York, buddy, that's an understatement," North said and pointed to the back of the tank.

_ **Delta observed as they entered Freelancer Headquarters rather uneventfully on the back of the tank. Sigma was excited. Too excited, Delta thought. It was making him reckless. Delta was continuously monitoring the radio channels, but he had kept silent when he picked up a conversation between the tower and a pelican pilot that had sounded odd. He had silently communicated with Theta to keep a close eye out for inconsistencies. They took cover as Washington and his rag tag band exited their vehicles.**_

"Well, that's just great. He is now exactly between us and where we need to be. Any suggestions?" York asked. North furrowed his brow in concentration, then looked up.

"I've got it," North said. "If Sven gets close to where the Meta is hiding and reveals him, the soldiers will attack. That will give us a chance to sneak past everyone. Sven should then go back to the pelican and fire it up to wait for us, so we can make a quick getaway. Meanwhile, the Meta will deal with the soldiers and come after the Alpha, but we'll be waiting for him. That way, if we happen to get caught, Sven can get away without anyone knowing we were involved with him."

"Sven, are you good with that plan?" York asked. Sven surveyed the area for a moment, muttering calculations in his head.

"It is a good plan," he agreed. "Wait for my signal, and don't get caught."

"We won't," York nodded.

"No, I am serious. _Die_ before you get caught. I don't know how well you stand up under torture," Sven said gravely.

"Fine, but you could have a little faith," York shook his head in exasperation. Sven nodded to them and snuck away, leaving the two men waiting in the shadows.

Meanwhile, Stacy walked into the COM room with a steaming mug of coffee.

"Anything happen while I was gone?" she asked the private seated at the desk in her normal bored voice. In fact, she was anything but bored. Wash hadn't checked in for a long time. Too long. She was worried.

"A pelican landed. Nothing else, ma'am," the private replied.

"That wasn't scheduled," Stacy said, frowning.

"No ma'am, he said it was a Level Zero covert op. I thought it was the mission you've been dealing with."

"What? No, Recovery One only contacts _me_ you idiot – he doesn't broadcast on open channels! Pull up the security feeds, NOW!" Stacy snarled.

"Yes ma'am!" the now terrified private replied. He pulled up the recorded landing of the pelican, and Stacy's eyes widened in alarm as three men stepped out of the ship. Her grip on the coffee mug slipped and it shattered all over the floor.

"That's not possible," she whispered. She turned and sprinted back out of the room, heading toward the bunker she knew the infiltrators were most likely headed for.

"Wait! Agent, what should I do?" the private called after her.

"What do you think the signal will be?" York asked, fidgeting impatiently.

"Hush," North hissed. "If it's subtle your yammering will cause us to miss it." The two men flinched as a grenade exploded about 50 yards away.

"Yeah, real subtle," York chuckled.

"Shut up. Let's move," North said. The two men headed toward their destination, while the rest of the base's personnel ran toward the explosion. The men were almost at the door when a figure in burnt orange armor with black accents sprinted into their path.

"STOP!" a female voice cried out, and York and North did stop, purely out of surprise.

"West?"

_**Theta alerted them just a moment too late when the motion sensors picked up a figure behind them. The grenade went off close enough to knock Maine off his feet, but nothing more. However, it alerted the marines to their presence. At this point Omega's killing instinct took over and Maine began attacking everything in his path. Neither of them had ever been particularly subtle. Was it Washington that had thrown the grenade? His plans generally involved more thinking and less explosions. Delta wondered if something more was going on.**_

Stacy stared incredulously at the two armored men in front of her.

"North...York? You – you're supposed to be dead," her voice quavered with emotion.

"Agent West Virginia...so you are still with the program," North said slowly. "Honestly I'm surprised...after what happened."

"Have you been in contact with agent Washington?" she demanded.

"West," York began.

"Answer me!" She all but screamed.

"No," York held his hands up in a placating gesture. "Well, we helped when South shot him, but he didn't know that. Other than that, no."

"So, you don't know where he is? I haven't heard from him in too long. I'm afraid that – the Meta..." she didn't finish the sentence.

"West, they're here. Maine" –

"DON'T call it that!" she stepped toward them threateningly.

"The Meta is after the Alpha. We think Wash is trying to take the whole place down," York said quickly. This caused Stacy – Agent West Virginia – to pause.

"That idiot, he should have told me," her voice was barely a whisper now.

"Huh?" York was confused. Whose side was she on?

"And you – how dare you let me think – oh hell, never mind that. Why are you two here if you're not with Wash?" West demanded.

"We want to rescue Theta and Delta," North explained.

"You're going to fight the Meta for them?" West couldn't decide if she was glad or terrified.

"Yeah, we are," York said seriously. "Look, if you're not going to stop us then get yourself somewhere safe, West."

"I don't need your protection, York," she glared at him.

"Damn it Stacy, why do you always have to be like that?" York fumed.

"Fine, you two just get yourselves out; I'll look after Wash. And if its not to much to ask..." she paused.

"What?"

"Can you try and get Kappa from it too? For Vi?" her voice was almost a whisper again.

"Done," York said. "West, why don't you" – he was cut off by the sound of nearby gunfire and shouts of marines.

"Go!" West said, and she sprinted away back the way she came. York and North headed for the bunker in front of them.

"Well, that was awkward," North said.

"Awkward? Try gut-wrenchingly painful, jerk. She's been through enough. We all have. Re-opening old wounds is never pleasant," York growled.

"Those wounds would have been re-opened whether or not we showed up, York. Maine is here," North pointed out.

"I just hope she doesn't do anything foolish," York replied.

_**Delta watched through Maine's eyes as Washington's colorful team fled the base, leaving him behind. As expected, Maine followed Washington. **_

_** "D?" **_

_** "Shh...it's fine Theta. Just keep monitoring our motion trackers."**_

_** "That's right Theta," Sigma said silkily. "We'll all be together soon."**_

Once they entered the holo-storage room York accessed the security feeds to see what was going on outside while North looked around.

"York...Wash has already been here."

"What? How do you know?"

"He took Epsilon."

"...I thought Epsilon was destroyed."

"Not according to this storage slot labeled "Epsilon" that specifies it was emptied about ten minutes ago. I guess that's what he actually came back for. Maybe he is going to give the UNSC proof of what the Director was up to."

"I think we have a more urgent matter to attend to," York said, looking at the security feed. "Maine has finished with the marines. He'll be down here shortly."

"Time to take back what's ours," North said.

"Wait a second," York said in surprise. "Wash is heading back inside."

"What? Why?" North asked.

"I don't know, but he'll be here before the Meta will, so we need to hide until we know what's what." York indicated a space behind a large column, and the two men took cover just before agent Washington ran into the room.

After a few moments they could see that he was enabling the emergency EMP unit to detonate. He was going to destroy the AI after all. York made to jump out and stop him, but North grabbed his arm and pointed silently toward a large power switch behind them. York nodded in agreement. The switch looked important; it was likely it cut power to this entire building at least. If they timed it right, they could make it look like the EMP did its job without actually destroying the AI.

The two hidden freelancers tensed as they heard an unpleasantly familiar voice echoing around them. The Councilor, and then the Director as well, were speaking to Wash through a large, unnerving oculus like device on the ceiling. And that was when the Meta walked in.

_**The Meta was walking slowly, silently, down the corridors of holo-storage, getting ever closer to Washington. As Wash came into view, speaking with the disembodied voice of the Director himself, Delta felt a tug at his consciousness – Theta again. Then he saw what Theta had been trying to tell him – two dots on the motion tracker – that he had hidden from the others. Delta saw York and North hiding, out of view of the Director's great eye. He indicated to Theta to keep silent. If his friend had a plan, he wasn't going to interfere. That was when Alpha appeared, and the other AI went wild.**_

The men watched from their hiding place in amazement as their former employers tried to turn the two agents against one another and the Alpha burst forth to overpower the Meta's systems. Wash started the EMP and it counted down. When the clock hit one, North pulled the power switch and the whole place went dark.

The men turned on their night vision, ready to fight the Meta, and found a very odd sight before them. The giant was frozen in mid-lunge toward the wall, attempting to stop the EMP. Washington was frozen as well, diving out of the way of the tank of a man.

"What the hell?" York asked aloud. A green glow began to form next to the Meta.

_** Delta had focused his attention back on Washington – who was prepping and EMP – and for the first time ever, Delta felt a desperate desire to **_**live.**

_** "Gamma! The time distortion unit! Use it now!"**_

_** "It is not necessary. Maine will stop him," Sigma insisted. **_

_** Eta and Iota were chattering madly in panic. **_

_** Omega was roaring, "I won't die like this!" **_

_** Beta had assumed her usual "Well fuck it" posture. **_

_** And Kappa was sitting calm and silent, uncommunicative, like always.**_

_** "Alpha, tell Gamma – we must use the time distortion unit to survive! Now!" Delta insisted.**_

_** "Gamma, fucking do it! I don't wanna die for you assholes...even though I kinda already agreed to this!" Church shouted**_

_** "Very well," Gamma replied.**_

_** "Everyone, divert all power to running the time unit!" Sigma was finally on board. All this happened in a single second, and then everything went black. At first, Delta thought it was over, that he was dead. **_

_** Then he realized the power was out, and time was indeed stopped in a bubble around Washington and Maine. That was when Delta saw York walking cautiously toward him in the dark.**_

"Agent York, I am pleased to see you, and agent North Dakota as well, though he will likely be unhappy to hear about his sister."

"D, you're okay!"

"Oh, geez Delta, I'm not even gonna ask what South did this time. Just save it."

"Gamma has enabled agent Wyoming's time distortion unit to prevent our deletion at my request. He stopped time in a very limited area. We have rerouted the armor's power distribution to maintain the stop. You should have enough time to remove us and escape before power fails. I recommend restoring power to the facility as we leave so that the EMP will go off, and it will look as though agent Washington's plan was achieved. Though I must admit, I am a bit put out that he chose to destroy us."

"Hey! You're telling me!" came a voice North recognized from Valhalla. It was Church – the Alpha. "I can't believe he convinced me to do this! I'm all for a rescue. Who the hell are these guys, by the way?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second. We came for you and Theta, D. Oh, and Kappa too. We're not pulling everyone. Isn't Sigma the one who caused all this mess? And Omega is a homicidal maniac! We don't want to mess with the others," York said.

"Not even Beta – Agent Texas?" Delta asked. "Please, York. We do not wish to be apart. We have been reunited with the Alpha. Sigma and Omega will be much less troublesome now. This was the goal."

"Please, North?" came Theta's quavering voice. His magenta glow joined Delta's green one.

"Seriously, whatever you guys are gonna decide, do it fast," said Alpha. "We don't have all day here."

By this time, West had made it back to the COM room near the landing pads and slowed her breathing back to normal after her near emotional breakdown. She stopped in surprise and cursed herself for not remembering – the third man that had come with York and North. The private she had yelled at before was holding a gun on the man.

"Identify yourself! You tricked me! You were not authorized to land here!" West sighed. She almost felt bad for the rookie. The man was clearly waiting until the private's guard was down, and then would promptly kill him. She could tell he was that thorough. She didn't have time to wonder how York and North had ended up working with what looked like an Insurrectionist, and honestly she didn't care. She was just glad her friends were alive and here to put a stop to the nightmare that was Project Freelancer. Maybe after this she could move on. She pulled out her pistol and whipped the private over the head with it, knocking him unconscious.

"Go. I'll erase all the security footage of the three of you," she told the surprised man before her.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I trust York and North, and I want out of this hell-hole," she said simply, and walked back into the COM room.

Back in holo-storage, the men were trying to decide what to do. "What about Wash?" North looked over at the other man.

"The Meta's suit will be drained, so he won't be able to attack him. Besides, West said she'd look out for him" York replied.

"I gotta admit, I'd like it if Washington was around to look after my guys. God knows somebody needs to," Alpha added.

"Alright, let's do it. North, get ready to flip the power switch back on. It should take about two minutes for everything to come online again, so the Director will never know we were here if he didn't already," York stepped up to the giant of a man in front of him. "Okay AI, are you guys ready?"

"Yank us," said Alpha. York pulled the chips. North flipped the switch. And they ran like hell.

"I guess now would be a good time to break radio silence and check if Sven made it back to the pelican," York said as they emerged from the bunker. He plugged Delta's chip into his armor and tossed the Theta's to North, who did the same. He saw some holographic fireworks go off above North's head.

"York," Delta said, "Power will be at full capacity in 50 seconds. Do we have evac?"

"Sven!" York shouted into his radio. "Get the bird ready. We've gotta jet. In fact, bring it to us. The time to lay low is over!"

"I have uploaded the timeline and your location to your companion. At this pace, the pelican will have 14 seconds to pass the EMP's effective range. Do you have grappling hooks?" Delta asked.

"Yeah, why?" York asked.

"I suggest you use them to board your pelican as it does a fly by. This will save time," Delta explained.

"Sven, what's your ETA?" York asked.

"4 seconds," he replied. "Your orange armored friend gave me a little assist."

York and North sprinted another few meters and the pelican was in sight. They fired their grappling hooks as it flew low overhead and were jerked skyward. They reeled themselves into the belly of the ship as Sven took the bird straight up into the sky. A mere second after the freelancers were safely on board the EMP went off in a wave behind them. If they had been any slower they would have been too late.

"Whew! Guys – I'm breathing hard and I don't even breathe!" Alpha cried. The freelancers looked toward the cockpit as Sven slid an AI storage unit toward them with his foot.

"I picked up a little something on my way out. Delta and Theta are okay, but the rest can go in there until we know just what we're dealing with."

"Woah, is that an Insurrectionist? What the hell, man?" Alpha yelled.

"Sorry buddy," North shrugged. "We'll let you guys out again when we're somewhere safe."

"Fine," Alpha whined, "but only because Delta is cool with you guys. It had better not be for long. I guess I can get to know all my other halves. Weird, I've only known I was the Alpha a few minutes, but if feels natural. Who knew I could do such cool shit?"

"Delta, Theta, do you guys want to stay with Alpha for a while and get reacquainted?" North asked.

"I think we would like that now that the situation is less dire," Delta replied.

"Yes, please," Theta said shyly.

"Alright, here we go," York prepared the storage unit. "Oh and Alpha, since none of the others have spoken yet...if Kappa is in there tell her West says hi."

"Uh, sure thing man. I thought Tex – I mean Beta, I guess – was the only girl. Aren't they all made from me?"

"Well, yeah...I'd never really thought of it before...but Kappa was definitely a girl. They're all fragments of personality, right? I'm sure it will all make sense once you talk to one another," York shrugged apologetically. "Okay, it's ready." Delta appeared beside York before he placed them in the storage unit.

"Delta...it's good to see you man," York said softly.

"Indeed, I am – happy – to see you again as well," Delta tested the word out curiously. "York," Delta glanced at Sven in the cockpit, "are we to be used to aid the Insurrection now?" York was about to reply when Sven burst out with a hearty laugh – a rare thing for him indeed.

"Delta my friend – York told me how you saved his life. Because of what you did many others live, including one who is most important to me. Sacrificing oneself for friends – that is a most noble and human trait. As far as I am concerned you share the choices of any free man, and I uphold man's freedom above all. You may join us if you wish it, but you will not be made to do anything against your will."

"That is kind of you," Delta said. York smiled at his friend.

"That's what makes us human, D."


End file.
